Network
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: November 14, 1976 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireColin Kennedy
Network is typical of the cool intelligence of '70s American cinema. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyChris Nashawaty
Timeless and essential. Read full review
100
Time OutStephen Garrett
This still-prescient vivisection of modern culture’s vapidity crackles with the nervous energy of midtown’s hothouse broadcasters. Read full review
100
CineVueJohn Bleasdale
Network is an outstanding satire that has become more rather than less relevant with each passing year. It is bitingly funny, whip smart and as mad as hell. Read full review
100
Total FilmStaff (Not Credited)
A brilliantly played, stone-cold '70s classic.
100
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
[A] prescient and sharply drawn comedy about the depths to which one unscrupulous station will sink. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
So the movie's flawed. So it leaves us with loose ends and questions. That finally doesn't bother me, because what it does accomplish is done so well, is seen so sharply, is presented so unforgivingly, that Network will outlive a lot of tidier movies. Read full review
100
VarietyA.D. Murphy
Sidney Lumet’s direction is outstanding. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterArthur Knight
Whatever its flaws, Network is a picture that can stand on its own. And does. Read full review
90
The New York TimesVincent Canby
Network can be faulted both for going too far and not far enough, but it's also something that very few commercial films are these days. It's alive. This, I suspect, is the Lumet drive. It's also the wit of performers like Mr. Finch, Mr. Holden, and Miss Dunaway. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's a dark, dark comedy that ruthlessly skewers the news industry on a stake, then roasts it alive. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhilip French
The film is immaculately cast...The principal figures in its ideological debate – the chilly, number-crunching executive Robert Duvall, godlike network supremo Ned Beatty and the ambitious, exploitative programmer Faye Dunaway – are vivid caricatures. But the movie runs out of steam as satiric invention turns into fervent, deeply sincere statement, and solid William Holden’s middle-aged producer becomes the representative of old-fashioned integrity. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
There's an amazing display of acting talent, even though director Lumet doesn't quite tie all the strands together. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Good campy fun from the combined talents of Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet; Chayefsky was apparently serious about much of this shrill, self-important 1976 satire about television, interlaced with bile about radicals and pushy career women, Read full review
60
TimeRichard Schickel
There is a lunatic energy about it. Every once in a while, Chayefsky abandons the struggle to dramatize his ideas and has somebody, usually Holden, just turn to the camera and spout off. In those moments, his concern — and sometimes his mother wit — comes blazing through and the picture takes on a life not found in safe, sane, well-calculated movies. Read full review
30
The New YorkerPauline Kael
He hardly bothers with the characters; the movie is a ventriloquial harrangue. He thrashes around in messianic God-love booziness, driving each scene to an emotional peak. Read full review
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