Don't Make a Scene (Redux): Network

Over the next couple weeks, there's going to be a bit of a thematic similarity between posts. I'm not going to make too big a deal of it, and it'll probably mean more if that's kept in mind.

The Story: Back when this scene was first presented (away back in 2008, election week) it was accompanied with these words: "No words necessary. Except to say that the words ring truer now than they did in 1976. You bet they're still yelling in Baton Rouge...from their FEMA trailers."

The second time I ran it, it was to commemorate Senator Ted Cruz for his own little rant on the Senate floor before cameras about the Affordable Care Act, in an apparent bid to get camera-time by aping Rand Paul's filibuster of a few weeks previous over domestic drone usage. (that little piece of theater, lest we forget the particulars, scrapes the bottom of the page in green-eggs-and-ham bold!***).

But, I'll tell ya, this speech never gets old or out of relevancy.

And so, here's another go'round for the "I'm as mad as Hell" speech," the dramaturgical epicenter of Paddy Chayefsky's bicentennial Oscar-winning satire on news and television and America, Network. In it, an American newscaster cracks up, like King Lear or Willie Loman and rants against the absurdities of it all and garners more attention than when he was just reading the news. He's both Public Service and Bread and Circuses, in one convenient package, and you don't even have to turn the channel.

Trouble is, he's just ranting—he doesn't have any solutions ("I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write!") but the anger is cathartic, it's addictive and it's instructional in it's delusion, it gives people a directive and as it doesn't cost them anything, not money, and only the fewest ticks of time without commitment of more. You don't risk your toaster, your TV, or your steel-belted radials without sacrifice. 

But, of course, there is. It's just ephemeral, slow-motion, imperceptible—like global warming. Doesn't affect your job, your home. Why not yell at the world? Why not fantasize about seeing it all burn? What could be worse than it is now? Especially if you've lost your job or something.

Not to be harsh or anything, but tell that to a buggy-whip salesman, or a video-rental store owner, or...better yet, try preaching that gospel on the reservation.
What have you got to lose?

History chews up those who only see in the short term, and it's tough to be anything but when you're living paycheck to paycheck. So, it's better to rant impotently into the night, rather than light a single candle. Better to look to a charlatan selling the snake-oil you're buying.

And so, back to Howard Beale, "Mad Prophet of the Airwaves," sociological evangelist, who has no answers and no solutions, but just wants us to react because yelling about it always solves things, and impresses people you're dealing with that you're a thoughtful person who can be reasoned with. Anyway, that's what I learned in customer service.

But lest one become too smug, there's not a lot of original thought being displayed here, merely feel-good mob mentality, which, as we've learned, can not only garner large ratings, but also win the most important election in the country.

Also, when this was first presented it was stated that George Clooney (was) prepping a remake...which will be broadcast...live...on TV.

Several years later, no TV network has decided to bite its own hand and the plans for a live TV remake of Network haven't appeared. 

But then, why should it? Reality has outpaced it.

The Set-Up: Old-school UBS news-anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) has been fired for low ratings, so he has announced that in a week's time he will commit suicide on the air. As a result, his ratings have soared. But his mental condition deteriorates. Now, after wandering the streets of New York in the rain in his pajamas and trench coat, he arrives at the studio in time for his newscast...and some commentary. Programming Director Diane Christensen (Faye Dunaway) and former News Director Max Schumacher (William Holden), along with the rest of the country, are watching.

Action!
DIRECTOR: Take two, cue Howard.
HOWARD BEALE: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression.
BEALE: Everybody's out of work, or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street...
BEALE: ...and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

BEALE: We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad--worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."
BEALE: Well, I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad. I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot.
BEALE: I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.
BEALE: You've got to say, "I'm a human being, goddamn it! My life has value!"
BEALE: So I want you to get up now, I want all of you to get up out of your chairs.
BEALE: I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it and stick your head out, and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
HARRY HUNTER: (in the control room): Stay with him, stay with him!
DIRECTOR: Everybody, stay with him!
BEALE: I want you to get up right now, get up, go to your windows, open them, and stick your head out and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
DIANA CHRISTENSEN: How many stations does this go out live to?
BEALE: Things have got to change! But first you've gotta get mad!
HUNTER: Sixty seven! I know it goes to Louisville and Atlanta and...

BEALE: You've got to say, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis.
(Former news-director Max Schumacher sits at home with his wife and daughter watching the screen as Howard rants. Max is alarmed)
BEALE: But first get up out of your chairs, open the window...
BEALE: ...stick your head out, and yell, and say:
BEALE: "I'm as mad as hell...
BEALE: ...and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
CHRISTENSEN(walking into executive Herb Thackeray's office): Who are you talking to, Herb?
HERB THACKERAY(on phone): WCGG in Atlanta.
CHRISTENSEN: Are they yelling in Atlanta, Herb?
THACKERAY: Are they yelling in Atlanta, Ted?
BEALE: But first you've got to get mad! You've got to say, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
RAY PITOFSKY (handing the phone to Christensen): They're yelling in Baton Rouge.
BEALE: Get up! Get up out of your chairs!!
CHRISTENSEN (throwing the phone into the air): Son-of-a-bitch! We've struck the mother lode!
BEALE: Stick your head out of the window, open it, stick your head out and yell and keep yelling, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." Just get up from your chairs...right now..
LOUISE SCHUMACHER: What are you doing?
CAROLINE SCHUMACHER: I'm going to see if anybody's yelling!
BEALE: Stick your head out and start yelling, and keep yelling...
(It's already started. More and more windows start to open, and people come out and begin yelling in different tones, different accents, different cadences "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!!")
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
(A thunderstorm begins overhead, and its thunder can't drown out the, by now, hundreds of voices shouting out into the night.)
(Max Schumacher listens for a moment, then he shakes his head, and closes the window, shutting out the noise.)

Network

Words by Paddy Chayefsky

Pictures by Owen Roizman and Sidney Lumet

Network is available on DVD from MGM Home Video.

*** From the earlier version: Only this wasn't a filibuster.  There's wasn't a vote being debated, and what he wanted to talk about—when he wasn't going somewhere else, like the philosophy of "Duck Dynasty"*—was about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was voted into law March 23, 2010—and hasn't gone into effect yet (that will be October 1st, 2013). Cruz says it doesn't work. He's right. It doesn't. It can't...and that's because it doesn't go into effect for a couple days (That's a bit like me saying that I know what the score for the first game of the World Series is because, since it hasn't started it's 0 to 0). How effective it will be will depend entirely on how states decide to fund it and utilize it, and that will fall along party lines. 

Because, in a democracy, your health depends on your political party affiliation. 

Anyway, Cruz wanted to prove he wasn't just an empty shirt with hopes to run for the White House. He proved it. Under that shirt is a lot of hot air...that's fairly directionless. My big take away after his twenty one hours of sad-clown fretting and regretting was his recalling the Little Engine That Could and it's mantra "I think I can, I think I can." It would be not only more economical, but more truthful and more determined if he left off the words "I think" and merely adapted "I can."  

But then he'd actually have to do something, I think.

And so, back to Howard Beale, "Mad Prophet of the Airwaves," sociological evangelist, who has no answers and no solutions, but just wants us to react because yelling about it always solves things, and impresses people you're dealing with that you're a thoughtful person who can be reasoned with. Anyway, that's what I learned in customer service.

But lest one become too smug, like Cruz's speech, there's not a lot of original thought being displayed here, merely feel-good mob mentality.

* Funny.  The episode of "Duck Dynasty" after Cruz's speech was about how the Uncle Si was doing some insurance scamming to buy himself a motorized scooter.  Great values we should all emulate. Thanks, Senator.  

Don't Make a Scene: Network

The Story: One of those scenes that I've wanted to do for a long time, this one from Sidney Lumet's—but more, Paddy Chayevsky's—Network.

Lumet almost disappears in this movie, it's like it doesn't need to be directed. The key is the screenplay and the casting. And Network benefited from both in big ways.

There are some differences: the setting for this part of it was—as one can read in the screenplay—an auditorium, one of those theater-prosceniums set up for presentations and dog-and-pony shows, that spend most of their time fallow and unused, a waste of architecture and space, merely ego-rooms.

But, Lumet stages it in a board-room, with their elegant long tables of rectangular shape that ensure the power-seat is at one end (as opposed to round-tables where all chairs have equal prominence). And it is from there that Arthur Jensen thunders his sermon to the proselyte Howard Beale. It is at once a dressing down of Beale's power by showing him a higher one, but also an acknowledgment of that power by bestowing a Crusade upon him, taking the gospel of personal freedom away and bestowing on him an new interpretation where freedom's just another word for disposable income.

This world-view is probably true to those who have never had to drive a car or buy their own groceries or cook their own food or play with their own children. All they have to think about is throwing their lightning bolts rather than the effect it might have on the populace from whom they expect their fealty or tithing. Why should a God have to worry about that?

Anyway...have you slaughtered a goat to Zeus lately? I thought not.

The Set-Up: UBS anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) has gone insane. Threatened with being fired for poor ratings, he announced that he would kill himself on-air for his last broadcast, cynically thinking it would boost his ratings. It worked without firing a shot. The perversity factor increases viewership and Beale goes off the deep end, ranting about the vagaries of the world on his show before collapsing in a fevered heap. Rather than take him off the air, the new format is exploited, making "The Howard Beale Show" the number one news program in America. But, Beale's persecutional rants are going a little bit anti-rich, anti-capitalism for the network's CEO Arthur Jensen (Ned Beatty), who wants to see Beale in his office.

Action.

151.  INT. ARTHUR JENSEN'S OFFICE

An enormous office with two walls of windows towering over the Manhattan landscape and through which SUNLIGHT streams in. 

ARTHUR JENSEN is rising from behind his massive desk --

JENSEN Good afternoon, Mr. Beale.  They tell me you're a madman.
CAMERA DOLLIES to include HOWARD just coming into the room.
HOWARD(closing the door behind himself) Only desultorily.

JENSEN How are you now?
HOWARD (as mad as a hatter) I'm as mad as a hatter.

JENSEN Who isn't? 

JENSEN Don't sit down. I'm taking you to our conference room which seems more seemly a setting for what I have to say to you.

He takes HOWARD'S arm and moves him to a large oaken
door leading out of JENSEN'S office --

JENSEN I started as a salesman, Mr. Beale. I sold sewing machines and automobile parts, hair brushes and electronic equipment.  

JENSEN They say I can sell anything.  

JENSEN I'd like to try and sell something to you --
They pass into --

152.  INT. THE CONFERENCE ROOM - C.C. AND A. BUILDING
The overwhelming cathedral of a conference room
remembered perhaps from an earlier scene where Frank
Hackett gave his annual report.  When last seen, it was
in pitch darkness, but now the enormous curtains are up,
and an almost celestial light pours in through the huge
windows.  Being on the 43rd and 44th floors, the sky
outside is only sporadically interrupted by the towers
of other skyscrapers.  The double semi- circular bank of
seats are all empty, and the general effect is one of
hushed vastness --

JENSEN Valhalla, Mr. Beale, please sit down --

He leads HOWARD down the steps to the floor level, himself ascends again to the small stage and the podium.

HOWARD sits in one of the 200 odd seats.  

JENSEN pushes a button, and the enormous drapes slowly fall, slicing

away layers of light until the vast room is utterly dark.  

Then, the little pinspots at each of the desks, including the one behind which HOWARD is seated, pop on, creating a miniature Milky Way effect.  

A shaft of white LIGHT shoots out from the rear of the room, spotting JENSEN on the podium, a sun of its own little galaxy.

Behind him, the shadowed white of the lecture screen.
JENSEN suddenly wheels to his audience of one and roars out:

JENSEN You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it, 

JENSEN ...is that clear?!  

JENSEN You think you have merely stopped a business deal -- that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back.  

JENSEN It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance!

JENSEN You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. 

JENSEN There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no
Russians. There are no Arabs! There are no third worlds! There is

no West!  

JENSEN There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and

immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! 

JENSEN Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars!,

Reichmarks, rubles, rin, pounds and shekels!  

JENSEN It is the international system of currency that determines the totality of life on this planet! 

JENSEN That is the natural order of things today, Mr. Beale!  

JENSEN That is the atomic, subatomic and galactic structure of things today!  

JENSEN And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature...

JENSEN ...and you will atone!  

JENSEN Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

 (pause)

JENSEN You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen, and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and A T and T and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

JENSEN What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- 

JENSEN Karl Marx? They pull out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories and minimax solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just like we do.  

JENSEN We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies...

JENSEN ...Mr. Beale.  The world is a college of corporations, inexorably deter- mined by the immutable by-laws of business.  

JENSEN The world is a business, Mr. Beale!  

JENSEN It has been... 

JENSEN ...since man crawled out of the slime, and our children, Mr. Beale, will live to see that perfect world...

JENSEN ...in which there is no war and famine, oppression and brutality --one vast and ecumenical holding company...

JENSEN ...for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, 

JENSEN ...all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. 

JENSEN And I have chosen...

JENSEN ...you to preach this evangel, Mr. Beale.

HOWARD (humble whisper) Why me?

JENSEN Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people...

JENSEN ...watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.

HOWARD slowly rises from the blackness of his seat so that he is lit only by the ethereal diffusion of light shooting out from the rear of the room. He stares at JENSEN spotted on the podium, transfixed.

HOWARD I have seen the face of God!

In b.g., up on the podium, JENSEN considers this curious statement for a moment.

JENSEN You just might be right, Mr. Beale.


Network

Words by Paddy Chayevsky

Pictures by Owen Roizman and Sidney Lumet

Network is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from M-G-M Studios.