by Paul Costello
What are some of the best scripts to ever be produced? Seriously, what would you put up there in a top five or a top ten? Off the top of my head, I'd probably include Chinatown, Tootsie,Back to the Future, Se7en... and I'd be doing an utter disservice to the field if I didn't include Paddy Chayefsky's searing satire of what happens when bad choices are made in television: Network.
What are some of the best scripts to ever be produced? Seriously, what would you put up there in a top five or a top ten? Off the top of my head, I'd probably include Chinatown, Tootsie,Back to the Future, Se7en... and I'd be doing an utter disservice to the field if I didn't include Paddy Chayefsky's searing satire of what happens when bad choices are made in television: Network.
I'm not alone in that assessment. Chayefsky's script has been widely regarded as one of the best Hollywood has ever produced, an incendiary, intelligent work that taps into something of the angst and rage that seethes underneath everyone living in contemporary society. It's a biting satire of calculated cultural exploitation with an uncomfortable degree of truth to it. And it remains very, very relevant nearly 40 years later. Listen to it and tell me you couldn't say that today on the news verbatim.
It's also a film built for monologues, since there are numerous strewn throughout the film, with the most famous being the deranged blitzkrieg delivered by the man at the centre of it all - Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch.
The role of Howard Beale is one of a man pulled to extremes. A respected news reader who becomes a wild-eyed crazy man when he's told he's to be let go by the network. After snapping on the air, the network execs then decide to keep him on, repackaged as a modern day televisual prophet, spitting fire and blood at the state of the world around him. Though Beale actually gets relatively little screen time compared to Max Schumacher (played by William Holden), he is the lynchpin of the film. Everything that's done revolves around him and how he reacts to his situation.
It's also a film built for monologues, since there are numerous strewn throughout the film, with the most famous being the deranged blitzkrieg delivered by the man at the centre of it all - Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch.
The role of Howard Beale is one of a man pulled to extremes. A respected news reader who becomes a wild-eyed crazy man when he's told he's to be let go by the network. After snapping on the air, the network execs then decide to keep him on, repackaged as a modern day televisual prophet, spitting fire and blood at the state of the world around him. Though Beale actually gets relatively little screen time compared to Max Schumacher (played by William Holden), he is the lynchpin of the film. Everything that's done revolves around him and how he reacts to his situation.
Certainly, it can be argued (as some did at the time) that all of this speech-making only serves to make the film as maniacally didactic as Beale himself, but it has been counter-argued that this is indeed part of the point, that the deranged raving spirit exists within the film as it does in the script as it does in us. But that's a point to debate amongst yourselves.
The monologue itself was delivered across two takes, the first somewhat affected by Finch's ranting himself into exhaustion, likely because he was suffering from heart problems so severe that Network was his last film. He passed away shortly afterwards, and subsequently became the first performer to win a posthumous Oscar (that didn't happen again until Heath Ledger won in 2009). Still, hell of a way to go out.
Setting the scene: Despite the protests of his old friend Schumacher, Howard Beale is returned to the air by the higher authorities of the network. Given full focus and free reign, Beale arrives on set a clearly unhinged man and proceeds to use his time onscreen to rant wildly and galvanise the masses into a frenzy. Cue Howard...
The monologue itself was delivered across two takes, the first somewhat affected by Finch's ranting himself into exhaustion, likely because he was suffering from heart problems so severe that Network was his last film. He passed away shortly afterwards, and subsequently became the first performer to win a posthumous Oscar (that didn't happen again until Heath Ledger won in 2009). Still, hell of a way to go out.
Setting the scene: Despite the protests of his old friend Schumacher, Howard Beale is returned to the air by the higher authorities of the network. Given full focus and free reign, Beale arrives on set a clearly unhinged man and proceeds to use his time onscreen to rant wildly and galvanise the masses into a frenzy. Cue Howard...
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