AMERICAN JEREMIAD IN THE FILM NETWORK

Abstract

The paper analyzes the narrative of the American film Network—an „outrageous” social satire from 1976, with the purpose of examining its critical range and the nature of its cultural and political messages. The film is interpreted as a dramatized American jeremiad, e.g., as a „political sermon in a dramatic form,” and the narrative analysis follows the tripartite structure of the American jeremiad: invocation of an ideal state from the past, condemnation and lamentation of the present degradation, and a call to repentance, renewal, and progress. Although Network openly and sharply criticizes certain cultural and political aspects of the American society from the first half of the 1970s, this paper argues that the film does not manage to break the mold of its cultural and political ideological frame, and through its dramaturgical structure and denouement, it reaffirms the existing one by following the technique of the American jeremiad which itself always performs this function by reminding of and calling to the ideal values of the American forefathers. The Network’s ideal value which it calls for is the concept of a morally excellent individual. Lastly, the paper examines the role of the film’s humor in the light of the overall interpretation of the narrative.