Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies - Hardcover

Itzkoff, Dave

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805095691 ISBN 13: 9780805095692

Publisher: Times Books, 2014

Synopsis

The behind-the-scenes story of the making of the iconic movie Network, which transformed the way we think about television and the way television thinks about us

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Those words, spoken by an unhinged anchorman named Howard Beale, "the mad prophet of the airwaves," took America by storm in 1976, whenNetwork became a sensation. With a superb cast (including Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, and Robert Duvall) directed by Sidney Lumet, the film won four Academy Awards and indelibly shaped how we think about corporate and media power.

In Mad As Hell, Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times recounts the surprising and dramatic story of howNetwork made it to the screen. Such a movie rarely gets made any more--one man's vision of the world, independent of studio testing or market research. And that man was Paddy Chayefsky, the tough, driven, Oscar-winning screenwriter whose vision--outlandish for its time--is all too real today. Itzkoff uses interviews with the cast and crew, as well as Chayefsky's notes, letters, and drafts to re-create the action in front of and behind the camera at a time of swirling cultural turmoil. The result is a riveting account that enriches our appreciation of this prophetic and still-startling film.

Itzkoff also speaks with today's leading broadcasters and filmmakers to assess Network's lasting impact on television and popular culture. They testify to the enduring genius of Paddy Chayefsky, who foresaw the future and whose life offers an unforgettable lesson about the true cost of self-expression.

About this title

About the Author

Dave Itzkoff is the author of Mad as Hell, Cocaine’s Son, and Lads. He is a culture reporter at The New York Times, where he writes regularly about film, television, theater, music, and popular culture. He previously worked at Spin, Maxim, and Details, and his work has appeared in GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, and other publications. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

In Itzkoff’s account of the durable 1970s film Network, the angriest man in the movies isn’t the TV news anchor whose on-air crack-up propels the film’s action. He’s screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, whose distinctive style—naturalism punctuated by long, articulate, strictly artificial harangues—and ­proprietorship about his work (only his words, all of them, were to reach the soundtrack) made him the rare writer considered the auteur or prime creator of his films (usually the director takes that credit). Accounting for Chayefsky’s anger proves hard for Itzkoff to put in so many words as he frames long, absorbing chapters about the preproduction, shooting, and reception (prominently including the many Oscars it won) of Network within briefs on Chayefsky before and after it. Most obviously, the writer kept his temper simmering to deal with the producers, directors, actors, and others who wanted to change things. Chayefsky also kept a passion for the worth of the common person throughout his career, and every insult to human dignity infuriated him. A making-of film book that’s also a piquant biography. --Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: Times Books
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805095691
• ISBN 13: 9780805095692
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304