Finch's spouting is impressive, but we prefer Holden's sardonic edge, even if his big speeches seem the most predictably written.
Comment
06/26/07
Network (1976)
90
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:41
Fresh:37
Rotten:4
Average Rating:8.1/10
Runtime: 4 hrs 35 mins
Genre: Television
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... [More]
Starring: Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall
Director: Sidney Lumet
Get This Movie
Reviews for Network
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.
06/26/07
Top CriticA timeless satire on television as a wasteland.
02/17/07
No review available.
01/05/07
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).
09/11/06
So truthful, so prescient, it's painful. Paddy Chayevsky delivers one of the best screenplays ever written.
08/02/06
No review available.
04/11/06
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
03/17/06
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.
03/08/06
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.
02/28/06
If Network had the ring of truth to it in 1976, you can be sure it's even truer today.
02/15/06
Slick, 'adult', self-congratulatory, and almost entirely hollow.
01/26/06
A well-crafted piece of celluloid that holds up quite nicely in the feeding-frenzy mentality that defines modern media.
12/06/05
It's creepy how prescient this one-time satire turned out to be.
08/26/05
No review available.
05/10/05
One of the greatest in a great year for movies. My favorite William Holden performance.
01/08/05
No review available.
07/29/04
No review available.
04/16/04
One of the great black comedies of the '70s
11/07/03
No review available.
10/30/03
Latest News for Network
June 22, 2007:
AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they... More...
March 09, 2006:
Trailer Bulletin: Find Me Guilty
Wondering what Vin Diesel's been up to lately? Well, he's been off making a fact-based courtroom flick with ... legendary director Sidney Lumet, that's who. Entitled "Find... More...
RT On Current TV
What’s Hot On RT
Fresh Links
Featured
Best Sci-Fi This Decade 
Techland lists the best Sci-Fi films of this decade.
40 Worst Films of the 2000s
Moviefone takes a look back at the biggest stinkers of the past 10 years.
10 Questions For Zac Efron
The Me and Orson Welles star answers reader questions on TIME.com.
Best Decade Ever!
Hollywood.com's C. Robert Cargill offers his thoughts on what the best decade for film was.
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
In the AV Club's "Scenic Routes," Mike D'Angelo reminisces about the Tim Burton film.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter
Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!
IGN RSS Feeds