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Network

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Network (1976)

90%
80%
95%
N/A
N/A
N/A
90 %
Reviews Counted: 42 Fresh: 38  Rotten:4 Average Rating: 8/10

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 4 hrs 35 mins

Synopsis: With stunning prescience, Sidney Lumet's searing satire of television and the contemporary moment chronicles media corruption and the way that the public buys into the myths the media creates. The moral and spiritual turpitude delivered by the debilitating forces of television are... With stunning prescience, Sidney Lumet's searing satire of television and the contemporary moment chronicles media corruption and the way that the public buys into the myths the media creates. The moral and spiritual turpitude delivered by the debilitating forces of television are rendered in sharp relief against a backdrop of crumbling humanity in what is regarded as one of the great satires in Hollywood history. With a visceral script from Paddy Chayefsky, NETWORK follows the doomed path of aging newsman Howard Beale (Peter Finch), who, upon learning that he is to be fired after decades as a news anchor, announces to millions of viewers that he will publicly commit suicide during his last broadcast. When the ratings consequently shoot up, hungry executive-in-training Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) seizes the moment to exploit Beale's Messianic nervous breakdown, turning his rage into the vehicle for the network's first Number One show and a nationwide craze. Who could have predicted that this 1976 film might someday influence an even more contagious trend in television broadcasting: the reality show? [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy

Director: Sidney Lumet
Screenwriter: Paddy Chayefsky
Producer: Howard Gottfried
Composer: Elliot Lawrence

DVD Info

Release:

Feb 28, 2006

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Keep Case
  • 2-Disc Set

Audio:

  • Mono 1.0 English
  • Mono 1.0 French

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Ratings Image
4/4

Finch's spouting is impressive, but we prefer Holden's sardonic edge, even if his big speeches seem the most predictably written.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/26/07
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Ratings Image
N/A

Chayefsky was apparently serious about much of this shrill, self-important 1976 satire about television, interlaced with bile about radicals and pushy career women, and so were some critics at the time.

Full Review | comment 1 Comment
06/26/07
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
B

A timeless satire on television as a wasteland.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/17/07
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ratings Image
2/5

No review available.

comment Comment
01/05/07
Lori Hoffman
Atlantic City Weekly
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A

For some reason, Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning satire was perceived as a drama when the movie came out in 1976. Much ahead of its time, the film was a cautionary tale of the news media as infotainment (emphasis on the secon part of the concept).

Full Review | comment Comment
09/11/06
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
90/100

So truthful, so prescient, it's painful. Paddy Chayevsky delivers one of the best screenplays ever written.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/02/06
Dan Jardine
Apollo Guide
Ratings Image
4/5

No review available.

comment Comment
04/11/06
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
Ratings Image
2.5/4

Much of Chayefsky's script seems to have been written with megaphone in hand, which is close to how director Sidney Lumet airs it out. Yet in retrospect, maybe the ravings of Finch as a deranged anchorman aren't so far from surreal madness of Jerry Spring

Full Review | comment Comment
03/17/06
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly
Ratings Image
3.5/4

One would assume that a 1976 film about network television would feel dated today, but director Sidney Lumet and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky had such a fine concept that Network seems downright contemporary.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/08/06
Forrest Hartman
Reno Gazette-Journal
Ratings Image
5/5

Rare is the social satire that rings as true as Network does, and the film is even more topical today than it was thirty years ago.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/28/06
Scott Weinberg
DVD Clinic
Ratings Image
9/10

If Network had the ring of truth to it in 1976, you can be sure it's even truer today.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/15/06
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com
Ratings Image
N/A

Slick, 'adult', self-congratulatory, and almost entirely hollow.

Full Review | comment 1 Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
Ratings Image
5/5

A well-crafted piece of celluloid that holds up quite nicely in the feeding-frenzy mentality that defines modern media.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/06/05
Stuart Swineford
Film Threat
Ratings Image
5/5

It's creepy how prescient this one-time satire turned out to be.

comment Comment
08/26/05
Rob Vaux
Flipside Movie Emporium
Ratings Image
4/5

No review available.

comment Comment
05/10/05
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals
Ratings Image
5/5

One of the greatest in a great year for movies. My favorite William Holden performance.

comment Comment
01/08/05
Michael A. Smith
Nolan's Pop Culture Review
Ratings Image
4/5

No review available.

comment Comment
12/18/04
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
3/5

No review available.

comment Comment
07/29/04
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)
Ratings Image
5/5

No review available.

comment Comment
04/16/04
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Ratings Image
5/5

One of the great black comedies of the '70s

comment Comment
11/07/03
Jon Niccum
Lawrence Journal-World
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