Network Reviews
Total Film
A brilliantly played, stone-cold '70s classic, whose message -- the blur between entertainment and degradation -- has more than a tang of topicality in these days of reality TV-dominated scheduling.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
The Nation
There is plenty wrong with television, plenty to satirize. But Network prudently misses the point, dishing up an outrageous razzle-dazzle stew that will ruffle no network feathers and delight a popular audience.
Film4
Fearless, funny and frank television satire that doesn't take any prisoners. Writing, performances and direction are all bang on and Finch cooks on gas throughout.
Combustible Celluloid
the secret to the film's immense popularity, though, is this angry, sudden blast of "truth" -- without being specific -- as if it had never been spoken aloud before.
Groucho Reviews
Writer Paddy Chayevsky's prescient 1976 satire of lies, injustice and the American way...has lost none of its sting. [Blu-ray]
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Top Critic
Common Sense Media
Biting '76 satire with a media literacy lesson.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Finch's spouting is impressive, but we prefer Holden's sardonic edge, even if his big speeches seem the most predictably written.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
A timeless satire on television as a wasteland.
Full Review
| Original Score: B
EmanuelLevy.Com
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
| Original Score: A
Apollo Guide
So truthful, so prescient, it's painful. Paddy Chayevsky delivers one of the best screenplays ever written.
Full Review
| Original Score: 90/100
Reno Gazette-Journal
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
| Original Score: 3.5/4
DVD Clinic
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
| Original Score: 5/5
Movie Metropolis
If 'Network' had the ring of truth to it in 1976, you can be sure it's even truer these days.
Full Review
| Original Score: 9/10
Film Threat
A well-crafted piece of celluloid that holds up quite nicely in the feeding-frenzy mentality that defines modern media.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Flipside Movie Emporium
It's creepy how prescient this one-time satire turned out to be.
| Original Score: 5/5
Nolan's Pop Culture Review
One of the greatest in a great year for movies. My favorite William Holden performance.
| Original Score: 5/5
