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starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addydirected by: Sidney Lumet
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301971546
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 630197154X
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: May 07, 1996
Running Time: 121 minutes
Sales Rank: 477
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: 1976
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Media madness reigns supreme in screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky's scathing satire about the uses and abuses of network television. But while Chayefsky's and director Sidney Lumet's take on television may seem quaint in the age of 'reality TV' and Jerry Springer's talk-show fisticuffs, it's every bit as potent now as it was when the film was released in 1976. And because Chayefsky was one of the greatest of all dramatists, his Oscar-winning script about the ratings frenzy at the cost of cultural integrity is a showcase for powerhouse acting by Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight (who each won Oscars), and Oscar nominee William Holden in one of his finest roles. Finch plays a veteran network anchorman who's been fired because of low ratings. His character's response is to announce he'll kill himself on live television two weeks hence. What follows, along with skyrocketing ratings, is the anchorman's descent into insanity, during which he fervently rages against the medium that made him a celebrity. Dunaway plays the frigid, ratings-obsessed producer who pursues success with cold-blooded zeal; Holden is the married executive who tries to thaw her out during his own seething midlife crisis. Through it all, Chayefsky (via Finch) urges the viewer to repeat the now-famous mantra 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!' to reclaim our humanity from the medium that threatens to steal it away. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Why this film is still relevant today
It must have been at least 20 years since this film was made and it is amazing that it is still relevant today. Director Sidney Lumet has lined up fantastic cast and found even better screenwriter that has made this movie to be one of the everlasting classics of the American cinema. Throughout the film we observe characters from the network television pushing their way around network for their personal gain. The rule of the game is "ratings" and those better be good or heads will roll. And if ... Read More
Rating: - Virtual reality and corporate cosmology
I saw "Network" when it was released in 1977. I'd just graduated from college and was still pretty wet behind the ears. Now, with thirty years' worth of experience in the world, I've watched the film again, and am stunned by how prescient it is. Screenplay author Paddy Chayefsky nailed it on both counts when he suggested that the world of television addicts us to artifice, and that money, not nationhood, is the new basic international unit. Incredible that he could've predicted all this a full ... Read More
Rating: - An entertaining depiction of mass media's public influence
This film is a wonderful combination of ideas on what the mass media system is doing to our perceptions of the world and how humanity is in constant struggle with the ways success has taken the place of real human emotions. It also presents the argument that corporate globalization is an inevitable process that will be to the ultimate benefit of mankind. A very interesting spin on so many of the most popular conspiracy theories. This film provokes serious thought on many controversial topics the ... Read More
Rating: - Excelente pelicula...
es la vida misma.... todos sus discursos, paracen validarse en nuestro dia a dia....Visionaria.... es hora de que las personas creemos mas conciencia en donde vivimos y para lo que trabajamos....
Rating: - News Accountable to Network, Sold to the Highest Bidder According to Ratings
A refreshingly cynical film about the fallout occuring from transitioning the business of journalism to a commoditized commercial interest. A peak experience movie that captures the business of marketing anger, as enabled by the ambitious personalities beholden to nothing but competitive advantage.
The conflict is a struggle of principles for prominence, one that serves the sense of an individual free will against the "forces of nature" argued as capitalism. The prophet for the humanistic ... Read More
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