“THX 1138” (Warner Bros.) THX 1138 in “THX 1138” (1971) It’s funny that Duvall is so closely associated with Francis Ford Coppola, one of the so-called movie brats of the 1970s, thanks to his collaborations with the director on “The Rain People,” the first two “The Godfather” films, “Apocalypse Now” and a brief cameo in “The Conversation.” But Duvall first collaborated with another member of the movie-aware group of filmmakers: George Lucas. “Network” (United Artists) Frank Hackett in “Network” (1976) It is evidence of Duvall’s range that, just two years after he gave one of the most impactful soft-spoken performances in all of American cinema, he delivered a completely different but no less haunting turn in director Sidney Lumet’s 1976 satire “Network.” Duvall chews up the scenery in the Best Picture-winner as Frank Hackett, the merciless, profits-driven network executive who gleefully clears the way for the film’s provocative central “news” program to reshape the world of television news for the obvious worse. Lisa Schwartzbaum, writing for Entertainment Weekly, said that Duvall “draws on more than three decades of experience personifying the hard contours and bruised souls of American men to create a fearless and fascinating piece of work.” It’s a performance that stands as one of the most towering and complicated of his career and it’s a film that exemplifies that he was capable of things just as powerful behind the camera as he was in front of it.
Author: Alex Welch, Drew Taylor
Published at: 2026-02-16 21:57:52
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