Saturday, February 21, 2026

Did Great Movie of 1976 Predict Our Effed-Up Present?

"Network" turns 50 " and somehow feels more shocking, more sobering, and more timely than ever

February 21, 2026

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A newscaster named Howard Beale, drunk on prophecy and clarity, rises from his anchor's desk. Having run down everything that's wrong with the world outside our windows " unemployment, crime, pollution, a failing economy " the gentleman now has a favor to ask of his viewers.

He demands them to temporarily remove themselves from their state of perpetual isolation and become part of the collective chorus, to open their windows and scream into the void.

Say it with us. "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!"

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"The story of our nation is pockmarked and littered with atrocities, oppression, terror, and violence. History is not pretty.

Yet the one thing that a divided country can actually agree on right now is that what's transpiring, in this age of the Great Step Backwards, is not normal, regardless of how those in power are trying to normalize it.

Not even low ratings can stop it. Network gazed into its crystal ball and broadcast back a worst-case-scenario diatribe that, if you paid close enough attention, doubled as a warning.

We don't just live in Howard Beale's world now. We're stuck in a world dictated by millions of Diane Christensens.

Fifty years later, Lumet and Chayefsky's brilliant work of art is neither a satire nor reportage. It's a horror movie. It's reality."

#1 | Posted by Corky at 2026-02-21 09:30 PM

Boomers LoL....

#2 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-02-21 11:43 PM

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