Network (1976) is director Sidney Lumet's brilliant, pitch-black criticism of the hollow, lurid wasteland of television journalism where entertainment value and short-term ratings were more crucial than quality. Paddy Chayefsky's black, prophetic, satirical commentary/criticism of corporate evil (in the tabloid-tainted television industry) is an insightful indictment of the rabid desire for ratings by the media - eerily prescient even for the present age. Indignation toward the network executives by an unbalanced news-anchorman (Finch) ("I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore") is manipulated by ruthless VP programming boss (Dunaway) for further ratings. One of the film's posters correctly proclaimed: "Television will never be the same."
The film had a total of ten Academy Award nominations with four wins. To the film's credit, five cast members were nominated for Oscars (and three won) - Best Actor (posthumously awarded to Peter Finch - Finch became the first andonly post-humous winner of an acting Oscar in Academy history), Best Actress (Faye Dunaway), and Best Supporting Actress (Beatrice Straight)).
Review via FilmSite.org