Network in translation

Key passages from the script of the Oscar-winning movie Network, followed by English translations.

1.

The initial response to the new Howard Beale was not auspicatory.

The initial response to the new Howard Beale was not auspicious.

2.
You could give her two minutes of trance at the end of a Howard Beale show, say once a week, Friday, which is suggestively occult, and she could oraculate.

You could give her two minutes of trance at the end of a Howard Beale show, say once a week, Friday, which is suggestively occult, and she could pronounce oracles.

3.
There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars!

There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and huge, interwoven, interacting, multi-national dominion of dollars, involving a number of independent mathematical or statistical variables!

4.
I just had a fleeting vision of you sitting in an office with a craggy middle-aged man with whom you are or will be emotionally involved.

I just had a fleeting vision of you sitting in an office with a middle-aged man full of crags with whom you are or will be emotionally involved.

5.
Am I supposed to sit at home knitting and purling till you slink back like a penitent drunk?

Am I supposed to sit at home knitting and embroidering with gold or silver thread till you slink back like a penitent drunk?

6.
Last night, I was awakened from a fitful sleep at shortly after two o'clock in the morning by a shrill, sibilant, faceless voice that was sitting in my rocking chair.

Last night, I was awakened from a fitful sleep at shortly after two o'clock in the morning by a shrill, faceless voice that had, contained, or produced the sound of, or a sound resembling that of, the 's' or the 'sh' in sash and that was sitting in my rocking chair.

7.
I'll strangle him with a sashcord.

I’ll strangle him with an unnecessarily specific choice of objects.

8.
What's happening to me, Max, isn't mensurate in psychiatric terms.

What's happening to me, Max, isn't equivalent in psychiatric terms to an obsolete form of the verb ‘to measure’.

9.
AMUNDSEN: And you would describe Mr. Jensen's position on Beale as inflexible?
HACKETT: Intractable and adamantine.

AMUNDSEN: And you would describe Mr. Jensen's position on Beale as inflexible?
HACKETT: Yes.

10.
I see Howard Beale as a latter-day prophet, a magnificent messianic figure, inveighing against the hypocrisies of our times, a strip Savonarola, Monday through Friday.

I see Howard Beale as a latter-day prophet, a magnificent messianic figure, inveighing against the hypocrisies of our times, Monday through Friday. He’s just like that 15th century Italian reformer, you know, the one renowned for his attacks against the corrupt clergy, convicted of heresy, and executed, except Howard will take his clothes off, metaphorically speaking.

11.
He should do more apocalyptic doom. I think you should take on a couple of writers to write some jeremiads for him.

He should do more apocalyptic doom. I think you should take on a couple of writers to write some lengthy complaints for him in the style of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.

12.
Well, I don’t want to be the Babylonian messenger who has to tell Max Schumacher about this.

Well, I don’t want to be the one who has to tell Max Schumacher about this.

13.
We're talking about impermanent, transient, human truth!

We’re talking about transient, transient human truth!

14.
...all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.

...all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all lacks of interest interested.

15.
Note please the added thirty-five millions resulting from the issuance of the subordinated sinking debentures.

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