George Clooney names his favourite movie: “It came true”
George Clooney isn’t exactly known for darkly satirical comedies. Although he has worked hard to avoid being typecast, he is still widely associated with the image of the charming actor, cut from the classic Hollywood cloth of the ideal leading man. His favourite film, therefore, comes as something of a surprise and may reflect a broader set of preoccupations not captured within his acting career.
Clooney is a world-famous actor whose work within and beyond Hollywood continues to draw headlines. Known primarily for his leading-man roles, he has also starred in blockbusters, independent films, and television shows. In fact, his breakthrough role was in the medical drama ER in the 1990s. His best-known films include Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk till Dawn, the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s film franchise. Slightly more recent hits include Alexander Payne’s The Descendants and Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, both from the 2010s.
A potential blessing in disguise for Clooney was that he did not initially achieve blockbuster success in his career. This enabled him to take risks and experiment with different kinds of roles across various film genres, appearing in romantic comedies, dramas, sci-fi and action films. This breadth of experience is potentially also reflected in his later career as a director. Over the past decade or so, Clooney has stepped away from acting to focus more on his filmmaking career, directing a war film, The Monuments Men, a sci-fi adventure, Tomorrowland, and a crime comedy, Suburbicon.
In an interview with the AV Club, when asked what his favourite film of all time was, Clooney was confident in his answer: “I think Network is… I think [film writer] Paddy Chayefsky was a genius. I think that what he wrote about 1976 at the time was just a comedy, and everything he wrote about it came true.”
Network, released in 1976, is an American satire and dark comedy film about a fictitious television network and its struggle to attract viewers and retain good ratings. It follows the protagonist, Howard Beale, a longtime anchor for UBS Evening News, who learns that his show is about to be cut because of declining ratings and viewership. Devastated, Beale announces on air the following night that he will kill himself during his newscast next Tuesday, before going on an additional rant about the evils and disappointments of life and modern society. Ironically, this unscripted tirade causes ratings to spike; suddenly, the network employing Beale is keen to ‘develop’ his show, spying opportunity amid the drama.
The film offered astute commentary on the media landscape in 1976 and the predicted downfall of journalistic integrity, which remains highly relevant today, as ratings continue to drive news and entertainment more than ever. Its exploration of how news and journalistic pursuits are transformed into spectacle, and the value of content and how it’s presented over truth on TV, was prescient for its time. It continues to serve as a spot-on critique of today’s often audience-driven news and entertainment content.
It’s interesting to learn that this film, of all films, is Clooney’s favourite. One wonders whether this speaks to a more personal understanding of how what gets filmed and produced often depends more on audience response or even shock value than on inherent quality. It’s possible that as he ventures further into directing, too, alongside his work in activism and philanthropy, the themes of Network may be cropping up in his own life. Audiences love a spectacle; it has been almost 50 years since the film’s release, and Howard Beale’s rant is only growing wings.
