Network

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Network

R

1976

2h 1m

Comedy

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

91%

Tomatometer

88 Reviews

93%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

In this lauded satire, veteran news anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) discovers that he's being put out to pasture, and he's none too happy about it. After threatening to shoot himself on live television, instead he launches into an angry televised rant, which turns out to be a huge ratings boost for the UBS network. This stunt allows ambitious producer Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) to develop even more outrageous programming, a concept that she takes to unsettling extremes.

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Critics Consensus

Driven by populist fury and elevated by strong direction, powerful acting, and an intelligent script, Network's searing satire of ratings-driven news remains sadly relevant more than four decades later.

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Derek Smith

Slant Magazine

Feb 13

Half a century later, Sidney Lumet’s Network remains a darkly humorous and relevant treatise on capitalism’s erosion of morality.

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David Thomson

Sight & Sound

Dec 22

The film is as vicious and feeble as a wasp trapped in the jam it craves, and if Network is essential viewing it is because of this chronic confusion.

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John Hindle

The Age (Australia)

Sep 27

Network is good, strong stuff. Fine performances enhance a meaningful script.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Mar 31

3.5/4

One generation’s satire is another’s reality, meaning that the outrageous antics on view in Network would hardly be out of place in a TV landscape that in the modern era has housed Bill Reilly, Howard Stern, and Fear Factor.

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Michael Clark

Epoch Times

Mar 26

5/5

Presenting this kind of absurdity with even a whiff of knowing, tongue-in-cheek self-awareness would have neutered its desired sting, so it’s all played with straight faces for the duration.

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Calum Baker

Radio Times

Mar 23

5/5

Lumet keeps the pace up throughout his marvellously edited film, with the actors - three of whom won Oscars - doing stellar work, remaining utterly believable even at their most absurd and verbose.

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Russ G

@RT78760655 9h

Second, possibly third, time I've watched this but enough time had elapsed since my last viewing that most of it seemed fresh, and that's largely due to the brilliant script and the pacing. It's a stunning depiction of how money and power corrupts. You grasp that it's satire and dark comedy requiring substantial suspension of disbelief in places but you hold on for the ride to see where it takes you. You can't even call the Holden / Dunaway affair a subplot; it's inseparable from the whole. Bill Holden didn't even get featured billing in this but he should have been billed above Robert Duvall, who probably got it because he was still a box office draw coming of The Godfather.

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Levi J

@Lev77 Mar 29

Absolutely amazing acting and screenplay in this very good and interesting satire that dives into the corrupt, world of the media/journalism, etc.

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Chaz K

@RT43802349 Feb 15

great movie. shows what happens when left leaning media stops showing the news.

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Camilo S.

@camyado Dec 13

I didn’t expect much when I sat down to watch this film. Apart from the famous line I knew nothing. It blew me away. I saw it around 2013 and the headlines from the newspaper could be the same. Everything that the film predicted about the tv industry basically happened. It is perfectly written. I love this film. Faye Dunaway does what she does best. Acts like a- But seriously this film says something. And means something. That’s still relevant today. 🖖🏽

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Patrick C

@RT84374237 Nov 21

Having watched 'Network' this evening, it's hard to believe Sidney Lumet didn't have Sybil the Soothsayer on hand to give the lowdown on life as lived through the social media lens in 2025. Prescient isn't the half of it. A film rooted in a emotionally uprooted present and gazing uneasily toward an unsettling future, it succeeds in being very amusing and somewhat disturbing in equal measure. Wonderful.

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Harsh C

@H_A_R_S_H Oct 31

Yeah nah it started off dull and half an hour later still the same, so stopped watching.

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Sidney Lumet

Director

Faye Dunaway

Diana Christensen

Peter Finch

Howard Beale

William Holden

Max Schumacher

Robert Duvall

Frank Hackett

Beatrice Straight

Louise Schumacher

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Synopsis

In this lauded satire, veteran news anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) discovers that he's being put out to pasture, and he's none too happy about it. After threatening to shoot himself on live television, instead he launches into an angry televised rant, which turns out to be a huge ratings boost for the UBS network. This stunt allows ambitious producer Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) to develop even more outrageous programming, a concept that she takes to unsettling extremes.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Producer: Howard Gottfried
Screenwriter: Paddy Chayefsky
Distributor: United Artists, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co: United Artists, Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 27, 1976, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2008
Runtime: 2h 1m
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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