Network

Production

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists released Network in November 1976. Paddy Chayefsky’s screenplay had been in development for years. Sidney Lumet directed Peter Finch as anchor Howard Beale, Faye Dunaway as the programming executive Diana Christensen, and William Holden as the news division head Max Schumacher.

Plot

After Beale is fired for low ratings, he announces on air that he will kill himself the following week. Ratings spike, and the network reframes his on-air breakdown into a primetime program called The Howard Beale Show, with Beale shouting his catchphrase, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

Reception

Network received ten Academy Award nominations and is one of only three films to win three acting Oscars, along with A Streetcar Named Desire and Everything Everywhere All at Once. Peter Finch won posthumously, the first acting Oscar awarded after a performer’s death.