Quite simply put, this film is a miracle.

That writer Paddy Chayefsky would craft a satire out of television well over three decades ago, a satire that would lampoon television's ever-increasing need to be outrageous and inevitably merciless, a dark satire depicting a frenzied rush to capture viewer attention and the resultant television channel dystopia...

And that the exact same satire runs, sans any attempt at purposeful humour, on our news channels, round the clock, in any language you please. A miracle indeed. Either that, or a sign of the apocalypse.

Lumet's uncannily prescient take on the television circus features Peter Finch as Howard Beale, a news anchor who tells a live camera that he would blow his brains out next week, on the air.

There is an outcry, and the channel immediately fires him -- only to realise that having the 'mad prophet of the airwaves' is a major asset, which is when sensationalist producer Diana Christensen (an all-conquering Faye Dunaway) decides to play up Howard's evangelism.

As old-school news editor Max Schumacher (William Holden) watches with disgust, the UBS channel turns his buddy Howard into a profiteering sham, his show featuring not just a sermonising Beale, but also sections devoted to astrology, shamanism, gossip, opinion polls and tabloid journalism, all presented in front of a giant stained-glass window.

It is the Church of Crass Consumerism, and all holding a remote control are called forth to pay obeisance. This scene shows Beale in one of his most radical outbursts, one the network eventually finds brilliant: Click here for the video.

A frightening, powerful and perfect film, Network is as must-see as it gets -- even though most of its accusatory fingers are pointed in the viewer's direction. Today, the film is more relevant than ever.

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