ASSIGNMENT: Watch Sidney Lumet's Network by right- clicking to open this link in a new tab: Network write a critical essay of 800-1000 words on the film. You are encouraged to offer your own insights, but you should address some of the following questions. To what extent does this satirical film, released in 1976, anticipate the anything-goes television and media environment of today? Is Howard Beale, in his guise as "the mad prophet of the airwaves,” a hero, an opportunist, a victim – or a combination of the three? How does the film's hermetic mise-en-scene reinforce the sense that these network TV operators are detached from the masses they are trying to reach with their programming? The screenplay does not belabor the fact that Diana Christensen is a successful, ambitious woman in a virtually all-male corporate world; but to what extent is this smart and seductive character a product of the emerging feminist consciousness of the 1970s? The film is replete with pointed, complex dialog and speeches; how does the energy of Paddy Chayefsky's screenwriting advance the momentum of the narrative and underscore the film's thematic concerns? What is the film's point of view on corporate ownership of TV news operations? What is the film's point of view on the suggestibility of the American TV viewer, and is that point of view still relevant today? What is the meaning of the co-optation of the radical "Ecumenical Liberation Army" by the UBS network's Mao Tse-Tung Hour? What is the film saying about the corrupting influence of the media on those who work for it? How does the film predict the political rise of Donald J. Trump?