MOVIEVIBE ← Back to Home

Network

1976 2h 2m
Drama
MOVIEVIBE Rating
7.8/10
2,106 reviews
Your Rating
Network

When veteran anchorman Howard Beale is forced to retire his 25-year post because of his age, he announces to viewers that he will kill himself during his farewell broadcast. Network executives rethink their decision when his fanatical tirade results in a spike in ratings.

"Television will never be the same."

Top Billed Cast

Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway
Diana Christensen
William Holden
William Holden
Max Schumacher
Peter Finch
Peter Finch
Howard Beale
Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall
Frank Hackett
Wesley Addy
Wesley Addy
Nelson Chaney
Ned Beatty
Ned Beatty
Arthur Jensen
Arthur Burghardt
Arthur Burghardt
Great Ahmed Kahn
Bill Burrows
Bill Burrows
TV Director

Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews

T tmdb39513728 Verified TMDB Critic
2015-01-09

**The Primal Forces of Network**

According to the Writers Guild of America the greatest screenplay of all time belongs to _Casablanca_. A sentimental favourite, no doubt, worthy for a handful of catchy one-liners capped off with a convincing dump-the-dame speech. While Bogie plays himself, Bergman, who may have been the most beautiful woman of all time, didn't have much to say. The best moments in Casablanca were, in fact, the silent ones, and without Bogie and Bergie's chemistry, it probably wouldn't have made the top 10.

Best screenplay suggests best story, best plot, best characters a...

T The Movie Diorama Verified TMDB Critic
2020-01-16

Network broadcasts its televisional corruption through satirical poetry that beckons democratic madness. “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore”, screams Howard Beale from the confinement of his studio desk. Exerting his ornate insanity upon the entranced viewers who innocently stare at their cubic televisions, watching the news broadcast fuelled by media misrepresentation and propaganda. “Go to your nearest window and scream”, acting as the voice of the working class, benign to the American corporate fundamentals that masquerade the politics of democracy. In an ...

A Andre Wilfred Sanders Verified TMDB Critic
2023-06-15

The UPS network is a television network that suffers from a lack of viewership. This led to the layoff of a group of their employees, including the great media night news presenter, Howard Beale, and this led to the events of a psychological impact on Beale, so he promised that he would commit suicide in front of the camera the next day.

The conditions and conditions of the network changed after Beale's decision to commit suicide in front of the camera the next day. The film takes us through the changes that occur to the network after this incident. How did Howard get the situation to the b...

C CinemaSerf Verified TMDB Critic
2023-12-22

Peter Finch is superb here as the increasingly puritanical television news anchor ("Beale") who, having been told he was about to be fired decided on air to tell the audience he was going to shoot himself on live telly. Next night - yep, he was allowed back - he declared that it was time the viewing public got off their sofas and declared they had "had enough" with lazy government and corporate greed. His long suffering boss "Max" (William Holden) wants to have him looked after (medically) but the ambitious PR executive "Diana" (Faye Dunaway) sees an opportunity amidst all this evangelicalism ...

B Brent Marchant Verified TMDB Critic
2024-07-14

Few Hollywood productions have been as utterly prescient as director Sidney Lumet’s cinematic masterpiece “Network” (1976), a chillingly serious satire about the television business in the 1970s and where it was ultimately headed in years to come. Written by TV pioneer Paddy Chayefsky, this winner of four Oscars on 10 total nominations provides a comical but cynically disturbing look inside the workings of a fictitious American television network. In telling this story, the film eerily forecast the direction this medium would take in the decades that followed with remarkable accuracy, st...