8. network

it is really about globalization and the continuing corruption of our culture due to corporate takeovers of everything, but it uses television as a conduit to examine that. so the nature of the title is two-fold: it is about UBS, sure, but it is also about that web that intersects and blurs the line between show-business, news, politics and business, and how those forces have turned into conglomerates to crush the individual voice. that's why "the world is a business" and "the human being is finished", and that's why big business has become God.

and when everything is part of a corporation, everything becomes a commodity to be exploited. howard's genuine anguish about his alcoholism and declining popularity becomes a studio slogan to be chanted at the start of a show; revolutionary leaders become sitcom characters; crime footage becomes popcorn entertainment.

as such, the movie is so prescient. years before jerry springer and bill o'reilly and all the myriad reality tv shows, we have howard beale screaming about how mad he is, we have a psychic on the news, and we have an assassination from the hands of so-called revolutionaries. all these things are so outrageous that the news, which has become another form of entertainment, becomes the a topic in the news, which becomes a feedback loop. and that's why howard beale is on the front page of the new york times when "hard news" is happening all over.

it does everything a good screenplay -- and a good movie -- needs to do. it captures the zeitgeist and the ever-changing mood of the audience; it makes the audience feel smart, like they are learning something; it features great quotable dialogue ("i'm mad as hell" and many more); it has a simple, classical 3-act structure (literally referenced in the film); there are power struggles and characters acting complexly due to their desires; it is predictive of the future; it is written largely as a series of monologues, so it gives actors juicy words to work with.

and it is fucking funny. who knew something this bleak and this true could make you laugh this much? it is gallows humor, but that counts too. maybe in our world, that's the most potent and significant form of humor available.