Network

As I keep reading headlines about more and more people being laid off and talking to friends who are scared of losing their job, I thought Sidney Lumet’s Oscar® winning film Network was appropriate to talk about today.  And more than that, that the clip above was particularly appropriate.  It’s funny to watch the clip above because just as Howard Beale is telling people to get angry about their lives, the television station is exploiting his rant for their own gain. The film itself is a satire about television with a lot of characters who are not good people.

For a film in one instant to tell people how they can create change (the Beale clip), while also demonstrating the complexity of that change and the complexity of what getting that message to so many people means, is pretty amazing.  At least I think so.   And even though she is kind of awful,  Faye Dunaway’s Diana Christensen brings up some important ideas concerning how we view woman in the workplace. The quote below is very frank, but I think it says something about women trying to find satisfaction on their own and how that is something that society still has a hard time accepting:

Diana Christensen : I was married for four years, and pretended to be happy; and I had six years of analysis, and pretended to be sane. My husband ran off with his boyfriend, and I had an affair with my analyst, who told me I was the worst lay he’d ever had. I can’t tell you how many men have told me what a lousy lay I am. I apparently have a masculine temperament. I arouse quickly, consummate prematurely, and can’t wait to get my clothes back on and get out of that bedroom. I seem to be inept at everything except my work. I’m goddamn good at my work and so I confine myself to that. All I want out of life is a 30 share and a 20 rating.

That might not be something most people are comfortable hearing, but it is something that needs to be thought about.

Watch this film to see how it pushed the envelope and then takepart by opening your own window and telling the world how you really feel!

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