But then, when i was 17 and saw NETWORK at an advance screening, before the reviews and the Oscar buzz, I remember thinking I would have liked to have cut Beatrice Straight's scenes entirely - I thought they lent moral conscience to a film where such a thing was simply unearned. Of course, i know better now, but at 17, i thought the brief moments slowed down the film, as brilliant as she was.
(And of course, the film has proven to be more prescient than we ever would have imagined - TV has exceeded the nightmare examples that even Chayefsky dared to imagine.)