A TV executive (Faye Dunaway) boosts her ratings with a mad anchorman (Peter Finch) who thinks he speaks... (Learn more)
Starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch (View All)
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Starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch
A trenchant satire of "trash TV," Network seems to grow only more relevant with each passing year. Howard Beale (Peter Finch), the dean of newscasters at the United Broadcasting System, is put out to pasture because he "skews old." Network executive Max Schumacher (William Holden), Howard's best friend, is forced to deliver the bad news. Beale can't stomach the idea of losing his 25-year post as anchorman simply because of age, so in his next broadcast he announces to the viewers that he's going to commit suicide on his final program. Network head Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) is all for kicking Beale out then and there, but when it looks as though the UBS is going to have its greatest ratings ever on the night of Beale's self-destruction, ambitious programming exec Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) talks Hackett into treating that fateful final telecast as a special event. Naturally, Beale doesn't go through with it -- but he does begin rambling about the horrible state of the world in general and television in particular. He concludes his tirade by admonishing his viewers to "Go to the window and shout as loud as you can: 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!'" With that, Howard Beale becomes the hottest TV personality in America, and Diana becomes the network's fair-haired girl. She draws up plans to treat the nightly news broadcast as garish entertainment (complete with a psychic), all built around the rants of Beale, billed as "The Mad Prophet of the Airwaves." Network won Oscars for Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay as well as for three of four acting categories -- Dunaway for Best Actress, Peter Finch for Best Actor (in the only posthumous Oscar yet awarded), and Beatrice Straight for Best Supporting Actress, in one of the shortest-screen-time performances ever to win an Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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US Release Date
1/1/76
MPAA Rating
Rated R
Running Time
121 mins.
Language
- English
Awards
- Winner of the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama award at the 1976 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actor award at the 1976 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture - Drama award at the 1976 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture award at the 1977 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Editing award at the 1976 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor award at the 1976 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 1976 New York Film Critics Circle [Festival Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Actor award at the 1976 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture award at the 1976 National Board of Review [Festival/Awa Awards.
- Winner of the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama award at the 1976 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actress award at the 1976 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Cinematography award at the 1976 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Original Screenplay award at the 1976 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Picture award at the 1976 Los Angeles Film Critics Association [ Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture award at the 1976 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 1976 Los Angeles Film Critics Association [ Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actor award at the 1977 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Director award at the 1976 Directors Guild of America [Festival/A Awards.
- Winner of the Best Supporting Actress award at the 1976 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Director award at the 1976 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Director award at the 1976 Los Angeles Film Critics Association [ Awards.
- Winner of the 100 Greatest American Movies award at the 1998 American Film Institute [Festival/Awar Awards.
- Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 1976 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
Distributor
- MGM Home Entertainment
- United Artists Films
- Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group
