MovieChat Forums > Network (1976) Discussion > Robert Duvall's Big Scene

Robert Duvall's Big Scene

posted 6 years ago by ecarle (14979)
6 replies | jump to latest

Poor Robert Duvall. All those OTHER people nominated for Oscars for Network, and bupkis for him.

And all those OTHER people getting at least one(Ned Beatty, Beatrice Straight) and sometimes more(Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, Bill Holden) great scenes and long speeches to make.

It would seem that Duvall was given the "short shrift," he's mainly the villain(and a great one at that) but...no...

..he DOES get one great scene. And the other actors in the scene(Holden and Dunaway) seem to take pleasure in giving it to him.

Its the one where he rages in triumph at Holden...and fires him (for good, this time. The earlier firing by Mr. Ruddy didn't take.)

Duvall gets to rage and bellow and delight in his corporate power. Mr. Ruddy has had a heart attack, Duvall's in charge, and -- in a great close-up of his interestingly mobile face -- Duvall tells Holden -- "I get to do something I've wanted to do for a LOOOONNNNG time...you're fired. I want you out of here before noon or I'll have security THROW you out."

Duvall then revels in the fact that his Howard Beale show is a "big...BIG-TITTED HIT!" and how the ultraboss Mr. Jensen at the upcoming board meeting will say: "Good work...keep it up."(Which later, Jensen exactly says.)

Holden tries to valiantly yell back about how many people will follow his fired ass out the door, but Duvall's not having it: "In this recession?"

And then Duvall gets to repeat his big warning with more "finger and hand" emphasis: "I want you out before(points down) noon...or I'll have the guards THROW your ass(gestures with hands) out!"

Richard Boone(champion sixties actor with hands and pointing fingers) couldn't have done it better.

Duvall rages, and calms down for his calm question of Dunaway after Holden has stormed out:

"Do you and him have ...a thing?"

Dunaway: (Sighing) Not any more.

And that...is Robert Duvall's big scene in Network.

PS. On the DVD commentary by the late Network director Sidney Lumet, Lumet laughs hard at Duvall's reading of "BIG TITTED HIT" and also laughs at his hand gestures on "out before noon...or they throw you out" and says:" great acting!" Yep.

[–] MichaelJPollock (731) 6 years ago

Ha ha! Yes, outstanding performance in an outstanding film by an outstanding director, laden with outstanding performances...
The way Duvall says "Herb, tell him!" before immediately interrupting him never fails to crack me up.

Duvall's "Big-titted hit!" delivery also always reminds me of Pacino's "because she's got a GREAT ASS!!" scene in Heat...
And his mannerism and explosive rage (as well as balding head and three piece suit...) reminds me of DeNiro's turn as Al Capone in 'The Untouchable'

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Ha ha! Yes, outstanding performance in an outstanding film by an outstanding director, laden with outstanding performances...

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Yep, its just one of those major films that only comes around so often. Now, because Paddy Chayefsky was given full rein to write as much and as long as he wanted ("final cut" of a script as well as a film), it sometimes hits a few overdone notes for me, a bit too much speechifying when human talk might have worked better. But for 95% of the time, I watch this film somewhere between awe and deep, satisfying laughter at the sheer audacious "big talk" all over the screen.

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The way Duvall says "Herb, tell him!" before immediately interrupting him never fails to crack me up.

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Yes, it is this kind of detail that adds to the power of the laughs in the scene and shows a certain intelligence in the writing that's rare.

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Duvall's "Big-titted hit!" delivery also always reminds me of Pacino's "because she's got a GREAT ASS!!" scene in Heat...
And his mannerism and explosive rage (as well as balding head and three piece suit...) reminds me of DeNiro's turn as Al Capone in 'The Untouchable'

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Pacino, DeNiro..Duvall. I guess all our best "method hams' know how and when to get the big laughs before returning to "great acting."

I recall finding some of DeNiro's and Duvall's expressions and cadences similar in the 70's, and somebody went on ahead and cast them as brothers in the 80's. That movie about the cop and the priest...

[–] db20db (17235) 6 years ago

He's both a mundane and believable 'hack' in Bullitt.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

He's both a mundane and believable 'hack' in Bullitt.

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I saw Bullitt on release in '68, and I knew who McQueen was, and I knew who Robert Vaughn was, and that was about it. (Simon Oakland I would eventually know well once I saw Psycho, but I hadn't yet.)

I had no idea who Robert Duvall was.

Eventually, from about The Godfather on, Robert Duvall was a well known name and I saw a TV listing thus:

Bullitt(1968). Steve McQueen, Robert Duvall.

Say WHAT?

So I looked at the movie again, and there he was. Near silent, a couple of scenes as a "hack"(cabbie) in which he was so colorless and believable that you wouldn't know he was an actor.

I'm reminded what Harrison Ford said when somebody told him he should play his bit part as a bellboy "like a star, so you will be noticed."

Said Ford to the advisor: "Shouldn't I play him so everybody thinks I'm a bellboy?"

Certainly before The Godfather, Duvall is "there" in key roles in key movies -- as Lucky Ned Pepper in the original True Grit and as Major Burns(a non-dopey Major Burns) in the movie of MASH. But he always seemed to have a reticent quality. And it took him a few years and some age on his face to develop some sex appeal. (Not to mention; before all of this, he was "Boo Radley" in To Kill a Mockingbird, and THAT takes some getting over.)

But in Network there, in that one scene, he gets to act big and swing for the fences. It must have felt good.

[–] MichaelJPollock (731) 6 years ago

"But he always seemed to have a reticent quality. And it took him a few years and some age on his face to develop some sex appeal."

Indeed. His casting as a cuckold, weakling sycophant in The Chase (opposite Brando) in '66 seems unthinkable and very bold casting a mere five years later.

[–] JBran (1658) 4 years ago

I just saw this tonight, and in his very first scene he had a flash of laughter and nervousness during the early tirade. And it took me out of his character.

He did not deserve a nomination.