Great Scene: “Network”
7 min readNov 3, 2018
“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
The WGA has an annual honor called The Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award. And even though it’s for writers who work in TV, where Chayefsky ruled during its so-called “Golden Age,” there is no piece of writing that displays Chayefsky’s brilliance than this famous monologue in the movie Network (1976). In this scene, newscaster Howard Beale (Peter Finch) goes on a tirade about contemporary life that is as relevant today as it was over 30 years ago.
Nobody in the control room is paying too much attention
to Yamani, they are all watching the double bank of
black-and-white monitors which show HOWARD BEALE
entering the studio, drenched, hunched, staring gauntly
off into his own space, moving with single-minded
purpose across the studio floor past cameras and
ASSISTANT DIRECTORS, CAMERAMEN, SOUND MEN, ELECTRICIANS
and ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS, to his desk which is being
vacated for him by JACK SNOWDEN. On the SHOW MONITOR,
the film clip of Yamani has come to an end.ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Ready 2.DIRECTOR
Take 2.-- and, suddenly, the obsessed face of HOWARD BEALE,
gaunt, haggard, red-eyed with unworldly fervor, hair
streaked and plastered on his brow, manifestly mad,
fills the MONITOR SCREEN.HOWARD (ON MONITOR)
I don't have to tell you things
are bad. Everybody knows things
are bad. It's a depression.
Everybody's out of work or scared
of losing their job, the dollar
buys a nickel's worth, banks are
going bust, shopkeepers keep a
gun under the counter, punks
are running wild in the streets,
and there's nobody anywhere who
seems to know what to do, and
there's no end to it. We know
the air's unfit to breathe and
our food is unfit to eat, and
we sit and watch our tee-vees
while some local newscaster
tells us today we had fifteen
homicides and sixty-three
violent crimes, as if that's
the way it's supposed to be.
We all know things are bad.
Worse than bad. They're crazy.
It's like everything's going
crazy. So we don't go out any
more. We sit in the house, and
slowly the world we live in
gets smaller, and all we ask is
please, at least leave us alone
in our own living rooms. Let me
have my toaster and my tee-vee
and my hair-dryer and my steel-
belted radials, and I won't say
anything, just leave us alone.
Well, I'm not going to leave you
alone. I want you to get mad --ANOTHER ANGLE showing the rapt attention of the PEOPLE
in the control room, especially of DIANA --HOWARD
I don't want you to riot. I
don't want you to protest. I
don't want you to write your
congressmen. Because I wouldn't
know what to tell you to write.
I don't know what to do about the
depression and the inflation and
the defense budget and the Russians
and crime in the street. All
I know is first you got to get
mad. You've got to say: "I'm
mad as hell and I'm not going
to take this any more. I'm a
human being, goddammit. My life
has value." So I want you to
get up now. I want you to get
out of your chairs and go to
the window. Right now. I want
you to go to the window, open
it, and stick your head out
and yell. I want you to yell:
"I'm mad as hell and I'm not
going to take this any more!"DIANA
(grabs HUNTER's
shoulder)
How many stations does this
go out live to?HUNTER
Sixty-seven. I know it goes out
to Atlanta and Louisville,
I think --HOWARD (ON MONITOR)
-- Get up from your chairs.
Go to the window. Open it.
Stick your head out and yell
and keep yelling --But DIANA has already left the control room and is
scurrying down --100. INT. CORRIDOR-- yanking doors open, looking for a phone, which
she finds in --101. INT. AN OFFICEDIANA
(seizing the phone)
Give me Stations Relations --
(the call goes through)
Herb, this is Diana Christenson,
are you watching because I want
you to call every affiliate
carrying this live --
I'll be right up --102. INT. ELEVATOR AREA - FIFTEENTH FLOORDIANA bursts out of the just-arrived elevator and
strides down to where a clot of EXECUTIVES and OFFICE
PERSONNEL are blocking an open doorway. DIANA pushes
through to --103. INT. THACKERAY'S OFFICE - STATIONS RELATIONSHERB THACKERAY on the phone, staring up at HOWARD
BEALE on his wall monitor --HOWARD (ON MONITOR)
-- First, you have to get mad.
When you're mad enough --Both THACKERAY'S SECRETARY's office and his own office
are filled with his STAFF. The Assistant VP Station
Relations, a 32-year-old fellow named RAY PITOFSKY,
is at the SECRETARY's desk, also on the phone. Another
ASSISTANT VP is standing behind him on the SECRETARY's
other phone --DIANA
(shouting to THACKERAY)
Whom are you talking to?THACKERAY
WCGG, Atlanta --DIANA
Are they yelling in Atlanta,
Herb?HOWARD (ON CONSOLE)
-- we'll figure out what to do
about the depression --THACKERAY
(on phone)
Are they yelling in Atlanta,
Ted?104. INT. GENERAL MANAGER'S OFFICE - UBS AFFILIATE - ATLANTAThe GENERAL MANAGER of WCGG, Atlanta, a portly
58-year-old man, is standing by the open windows of his
office, staring out into the gathering dusk, holding
his phone. The station is located in an Atlanta
suburb, but from far off across the foliage
surrounding the station, there can be heard a faint
RUMBLE. On his office console, HOWARD BEALE is
saying --HOWARD (ON CONSOLE)
-- and the inflation and the oil
crisis --GENERAL MANAGER
(into phone)
Herb, so help me, I think they're
yelling --105. INT. THACKERAY'S OFFICEPITOFSKY
(at SECRETARY's desk,
on the phone)
They're yelling in Baton Rouge.DIANA grabs the phone from him and listens to the
people of Baton Rouge yelling their anger in the
streets --HOWARD (ON CONSOLE)
-- Things have got to change.
But you can't change them unless
you're mad. You have to get mad.
Go to the window --DIANA
(gives phone back to
PITOFSKY; her eyes
glow with excitement)
The next time somebody asks you
to explain what ratings are,
you tell them: that's ratings!
(exults)
Son of a bitch, we struck the
mother lode!106. INT. MAX'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOMMAX, MRS. SCHUMACHER, and their 17-year-old daughter,
CAROLINE, watching the Network News Show --HOWARD (ON THE SET)
-- Stick your head out and yell.
I want you to yell: "I'm mad
as hell and I'm not going to
take this any more!"CAROLINE gets up from her chair and heads for the
living room window.LOUISE SCHUMACHER
Where are you going?CAROLINE
I want to see if anybody's
yelling.HOWARD (ON TV SET)
Right now. Get up. Go to
your window --107. INT./EXT. MAX'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOMCAROLINE opens the window and looks out on the
rain-swept streets of the upper East Side, the
bulking, anonymous apartment houses and the occasional
brownstones. It is thunder dark; a distant clap of
THUNDER CRASHES somewhere off and LIGHTNING shatters
the dank darkness. In the sudden HUSH following the
thunder, a thin voice down the block can be heard
shouting:THIN VOICE (O.S.)
I'm mad as hell and I'm not
going to take this any morelHOWARD (ON TV SET)
-- open your window --MAX joins his daughter at the window. RAIN sprays
against his face --108. MAX'S P.O.V.He sees occasional windows open, and, just across
from his apartment house, a MAN opens the front door
of a brownstone --MAN
(shouts)
I'm mad as hell and I'm not
going to take this any more!OTHER SHOUTS are heard. From his twenty-third floor
vantage point, MAX sees the erratic landscape of
Manhattan buildings for some blocks, and, silhouetted
HEADS in window after window, here, there, and then
seemingly everywhere, SHOUTING out into the slashing
black RAIN of the streets --VOICES
I'm mad as hell and I'm not
going to take this any morelA terrifying enormous CLAP of natural THUNDER, followed
by a frantic brilliant FULGURATION of LIGHTNING; and now
the gathering CHORUS of scattered SHOUTS seems to be
coming from the whole, huddled, black horde of the
city's people, SCREAMING together in fury, an
indistinguishable tidal roar of human rage as formidable
as the natural THUNDER again ROARING, THUNDERING,
RUMBLING above. It sounds like a Nuremberg rally, the
air thick and trembling with it --109. FULL SHOT - MAXstanding with his DAUGHTER by the open terrace window-
doors, RAIN spraying against them, listening to the
stupefying ROARS and THUNDERING rising from all around
him. He closes his eyes, sighs, there's nothing he
can do about it any more, it's out of his hands.
Notice how the dialogue builds from Howard seated behind the desk, almost as if someone confessing something. Then the pivot point, “Well, I’m not going to leave you alone,” where Howard turns from confessor to prophet letting loose with his clarion call: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Watch Finch who gives an incredible performance in this scene:
Now that is a great scene!
And doesn’t it seem like TV programmer Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) would fit into today’s world filled with reality TV?
I’m sure someone will be tempted to comment about the length of Howard’s dialogue. For instance, his first side — setting aside the SD that breaks it up — is 59 lines long. I doubt there’s a screenwriting guru or script reader alive who would — in theory at least — acknowledge that writing a 59 line monologue is a good idea. However, two things. First, Chayefsky was a consummate wordsmith, especially his dialogue, so he could do anything he wanted to do. But the second thing is about the individuality of our stories. And if our story requires a character to go on a 59 line monologue, then we, as writers, have the right to let them do that. We also have the responsibility to make sure those 59 lines are damn good lines!
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