I watched Network last night for the first time in about ten years. I can't say I'd forgotten how good Holden is in it, but every time I see it I appreciate him more and more. I also believe that his is the lead role and Finch's a supporting one. All other things being equal this could have been the first (and perhaps only) movie to sweep the acting Oscars.
William Holden was so versatile and made so many good movies. There are all the obvious ones, and then things not many people have seen, like The Counterfeit Traitor. The thing I love about him most is that he must have been drawn to characters who are wearily cynical and sarcastic, but he played these roles so well in context that I never think of him as having played the same role twice.
Max Schumacher is sardonic, too, but he's the only character in a cold and brittle movie with a heart and a soul. It's a great performance.
I agree ecjones. I think Holden should have got best acting and Finch best supporting actor. Holden was magnificient in this movie.
shareDitto
Holden Best Actor
Finch Best Supporting Actor
Holden was the leading man here and Finch was support and would have also got the sympathy vote over Holden. However, I don't feel that Holden would have been runner up. That would have likely been Robert De Niro for TAXI DRIVER. He won LA,NY and NSFC.
shareAgreed. Truly great.
shareHolden has always been a rather wooden and awkward actor with very limited range, but he´s good enough here. Brings a necessary element of humanity into this otherwise savage film.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Wooden and awkward? In every film I've seen him in, he comes across as very charming, very natural, and he draws you in. I'm a new fan actually, I've recently rewatched Sunset Blvd since I was a kid and just discovered him. I've since been doing a marathon on Holden films and I'm shocked that he isn't more popular or recognized like Brando or Newman or Bogart. I simply don't get why he's not more of a household name like those other 3 are.
And Holden has far more watchable, enjoyable, memorable, and nicer films than some of these guys.
Global Warming, it's a personal decision innit? - Nigel Tufnel
I don't know about wooden; Holden seem to won every precursor award, including the Oscar, for STALAG 17.
shareI don't know about wooden; Holden.....
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I have seen about 12 of Holden's films and the Lucy episode he appeared in, (love it just for him) and have never found him wooden. There are many actors from the bygone era that I haven't discovered and Holden was always around in movies when I was a kid in the 70's. Some of his more popular older films, hadn't escaped me either.
He has a strong masculine presence and sad expressive features and I love watching his face and eyes. Lumet loved them to and it was a bit detrimental in some scenes in NETWORK. Especially Beatrice Straight's scene, when she is confronting him. The camera is more concerned with his reaction to what she was saying, rather than 'as' focused on her character and how she was saying it.
'The camera is more concerned with his reaction to what she was saying, rather than 'as' focused on her character and how she was saying it.'
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That annoyed me. I like to see the actor delivering the lines, especially when she wins an Oscar for them. I know it's done for effect, but it can be overkill. You even see that a lot in Valley of the Dolls, a much lesser film (showing the actor's back) and it ruins the passion of the actor's lines.
There were even some shots, with the camera following her and static on her back or side, while she is talking. It could have tracked her, from the front. Holden's quiet expression and reaction, wasn't as compelling at this stage of the film and we needed to see more of Straight. Lumet lacked some pizazz, in his presentation and style of directing at times. He was all wrong for THE WIZ-78', when the camera just sat there, like a piece of dead wood and gave the film no life or energy.
shareYes, I saw the tracking deficit too.
They could have used more back-shots and other actor's reactions for Faye in Mommie Dearest!
Lumet has some lousy-reviewed films, like the director of Lady Sings the Blues, Sidney J. Furie (a worse case)
Lumet is over-praised as a director and while I haven't seen all his films, I think I have seen the ones that count. Except SERPICO-73'
shareIf anything, Lumet's underrated, in big part probably because he's usually not considered an auteur as he tended towards sort of an unobtrusive, "invisible" style, not making his presence obvious. However, how many directors are there who have, by my reckoning, up to 10 masterpieces or near-masterpieces on their resume? Well, Lumet has 12 Angry Men, The Pawnbroker, The Anderson Tapes, The Offence, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Prince Of The City, The Verdict, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead... bit hard to chalk this filmography up to coincidence. Also, even his lesser pictures tend to be worthwhile and interesting at least in some regards - just like with Robert Altman, there was always an alert intelligence and mature sensibility at work in his films (as someone noted, between 2006 and 2011, when Altman and Lumet died, Hollywood's collective IQ must have dropped by a half).
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Definitely!! His final scene with Faye Dunaway is as close to perfect as it gets.
"I think we've out-sophisticated ourselves out of some of the pleasures of movies."
I couldn't agree more. The whole cast is superb in this but Holden was excellent.
It is my business to protect your majesty.... against all things.
I agree that he does a really good job here. I just hated the whole faye dunaway romance. I thought they had no chemistry anyway.
I agree Finch should have been in the best supporting actor category and Holden would have won best actor then. It would have been something if they had won Oscars in all four categories.
"This is one of William Holden's finest performances."
Just watched this for the first time since its theatrical release, and couldn't agree more. Finch may have had the more flamboyant, showy role, but Holden's quiet under-acting was rivetting. If you ask me, everyone who shares a scene with him is better in that scene because he's in it.
"In my case, self-absorption is completely justified."
"Holden has always been a rather wooden and awkward actor with very limited range."
!?? Totally disagree. Perhaps he had a limited ranged, but so did many great actors, like Gable, Cooper, Cagney, Bogie, etc.
Holden was excellent in early roles like Sunset Blvd, Sabrina and The Country Girl. But this was his greatest performance.
He's absolutely terrific in Network - a much needed, soulful foil for just about every other character in the film (except for his wife Louise, portrayed by the beautiful and classy Beatrice Straight in her very brief but Oscar-winning performance). Max Schumacher was a great role that suited him to a t, and he played it to perfection.
William Holden was my favorite leading man when I was a little girl. Even today, I can't think of anyone I like better. In addition to the ones you mentioned generalusgrant, Bridge On The River Kwai, Stalag 17, Picnic, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing and Born Yesterday are all movies he starred in that I watch again and again.
His dance scene with Kim Novak in Picnic is pure magic.
Guessing you watched on TCM tonight too, eh? Yep, the dance scene in Picnic is pure perfection. Candy floss.
shareCorrect ecjones1951, I watched it last night!
I gather, after reading other threads on this board, that some people find Network too wordy and starkly moralistic. I can't disagree entirely, especially when it comes to William Holden's character Max as he's interacting with Faye Dunaway's Diana during their break up. Were it not for Dunaway's physical beauty and relative youth, it would be hard to believe a man like him would even be attracted to someone as manipulatively ambitious, shrill and amoral as she was. He knew she was all of those things, but I simply view him as an old fool who hoped he'd convince her to change. And such a vain hope required quite a bit of talking!
Still, I love the film and William Holden's portrayal of an over-the-hill newsman having a late-life crisis.
Excellent analysis of the Max/Diana relationship. Doesn't he tell his wife that (paraphrasing) he's been dead inside and Diana makes him feel alive? Pretty cruel thing to say to a wife who has remained loyal, (and most likely faithful) to him for 25 years, although he probably has had a number of affairs in that time.
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