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Film:"Network" Michael Stutz Broadcast Programming Actually, I liked this movie much better than "Broadcast News". This movie was much more direct, and even though it had those corny love subplots too, they were characteristically 7O's-ish, and I could laugh at them, whereas in "Breadcast News", the big story about the "love triangle" was too much for me to handle, in a sense - I couldn't wait until it was over. Also, since it was an older movie, I could easily distinguish the surface clutter (such as dress, photography, etc) of the time it was made and look much more closely at the central theme, whereas in "Broadcast News", which was made just a few years ago, the two things were much more mixed and indistinguishable because of the fact that it is a recent movie. I could relate to it better, but had trouble picking out it's central meanings. Moreover, what "Network" is trying to say, in my view, is that the dangers of our increasingly networked society are great (in the 7O's, they were always making movies about the dangers of things we do -- I wonder what the 9O's will bring for us now that a whole decade past by without us doing anything about them). The death of the talk show star at the end of the movie really came as a suprise to me. When they were discussing his murder in the office, I thought, "Oh, they CAN'T be serious." I'm not sure if the problem of commerciality has gone THAT far, where execs in the Big Leagues would actually do something like that, but I realize the vast economic impact the media has given to the modern (or should I say present) society. I think that "Network" does a good job of getting this point across. No matter how good or creative a piece of work is (not just TV, but movies, music, etc), it won't even be considered by the execs of the media companies. (I'm sure you know this, I'm just letting you know that I know it). It's terrible that the good stuff gets dumped for trash like the Cosby Show (well, it has SOME redeeming value, but it's not as good as they say), New Kids on the Block, abd "Fatal Attraction". But the ratings people say that we like it. Sort of like now, because February is sweeps month, it's funny to see channels 5 and 3 stoop down to new lows with "news reports" of date rape, strip joints, and other sexually violent pseudo-journalistic hype-trash reports. Like Bob Tanak said on Wednesday, such trash might get fast ratings, but they won't hold people in the long run. Unfortunatley, these people don't seem to realize that.