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.
Ratings
Curator score: 9.3/10
IMDb: 8.1/10
Letterboxd: 4.26/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Metacritic: 83
TMDB: 7.8/10
Director
Sidney Lumet
Production
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists
Cast
Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty, Beatrice Straight, Wesley Addy, Arthur Burghardt, Bill Burrows, John Carpenter, Jordan Charney, Kathy Cronkite, Ed Crowley, Jerome Dempsey, Conchata Ferrell, Gene Gross, Stanley Grover, Cindy Grover, Darryl Hickman, Mitchell Jason
Curator Review
Verdict
A savage, prophetic media satire that turns network television into a machine for profit, spectacle, and moral collapse. It’s sharp, furious, and still uncomfortably current, with powerhouse performances and dialogue that lands like a warning shot.
Best for
Viewers who like biting political satire
Fans of 1970s adult dramas
People interested in media, ratings culture, and corporate power
Audiences who enjoy darkly funny, talky films with big monologues
Skip if
You want a light or comforting watch
You dislike abrasive, cynical storytelling
You prefer action-driven plots over dialogue-heavy drama
You’re not in the mood for a film that feels bleakly relevant
Overview
Network is one of the great American satires because it never settles for a single target. It skewers television, corporate logic, political passivity, and the audience’s appetite for outrage, then keeps digging until the whole system feels rotten. The script is blistering, but the film’s real sting is how human it makes everyone inside the machine seem, even as they help keep it running.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the balance of outrage and precision. It’s theatrical without feeling stagebound, funny without softening the critique, and increasingly eerie in how accurately it predicts the economics of attention. The performances, especially the volatile anchorman and the ruthless programming executive, give the film its voltage.
Bottom line
If you like movies that are both entertaining and alarming, this is essential viewing. It’s not just a time capsule of 1970s media anxiety; it’s a blueprint for the age of monetized spectacle.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Matt J. (4.5★) · 6697 likes
"There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon."
This film is 40 years old, and the above quote rings just as true today as it did back then. It is scary how pertinent this scarily-prescient film still feels today.
fran hoepfner (4.5★) · 4909 likes
good thing that instead of working in media I am [checks notes] unemployed
kayla (4.5★) · 3282 likes
“He's saying that life is bullshit, and it is, so what are you screaming about?”
Karsten (3.5★) · 2710 likes
faye dunaway would be a great shiv
(i promise i’ll stop referencing succession eventually)
liam f (4.5★) · 2641 likes
guess you could say that Howard Beale is 1 Angry Man
2004 · Comedy · 1h 35m · PG-13 · Curator 4.5/10 (921.5K ratings) · Where to watch: Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus
A comedic take on broadcast culture that plays with the absurdity of television personalities.
Topics
political satire, media critique, dark comedy, 1970s cinema, corporate power, broadcast journalism, cynical tone, prophetic, ensemble drama, social commentary