Network premiered in New York City on November 27, 1976, and went into wide release shortly afterward. The film opened to widespread critical acclaim, and became one of the big hits of 1976–77, earning $23.7 million at the box office.[23]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times called Network "outrageous ... brilliantly, cruelly funny, a topical American comedy that confirms Paddy Chayefsky's position as a major new American satirist" and a film whose "wickedly distorted views of the way television looks, sounds, and, indeed, is, are the satirist's cardiogram of the hidden heart, not just of television but also of the society that supports it and is, in turn, supported."[24] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave Network four stars out of four, calling it "a very funny movie that takes an easy target and giddily beats it to death."[25] In a review written after Network received its Academy Awards, Roger Ebert called it a "supremely well-acted, intelligent film that tries for too much, that attacks not only television but also most of the other ills of the 1970s," though "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."[26]
Not all reviews were positive: Pauline Kael in The New Yorker criticized the film's abundance of long, preachy speeches; Chayefsky's self-righteous contempt for not only television itself but also television viewers; and the fact that almost everyone in the movie, particularly Robert Duvall, has a shouting rant: "The cast of this messianic farce takes turns yelling at us soulless masses."[27] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post declared that "the movie is too sternly, monotonously preachy for either persuasion or casual amusement."[28] Michael Billington wrote, "Too much of this film has the hectoring stridency of tabloid headlines",[29] while Chris Petit in Time Out described it as "slick, 'adult', self-congratulatory, and almost entirely hollow", adding that "most of the interest comes in watching such a lavishly mounted vehicle leaving the rails so spectacularly."[30]
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50/10. The site's critics consensus states, "Driven by populist fury and elevated by strong direction, powerful acting, and an intelligent script, Network's searing satire of ratings-driven news remains sadly relevant more than four decades later."[31] On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[32]
Legacy
In 2000 Roger Ebert added the film to his Great Movies list and said it was "like prophecy. When Chayefsky created Howard Beale, could he have imagined Jerry Springer, Howard Stern, and the World Wrestling Federation?"; he credits Lumet and Chayefsky for knowing "just when to pull out all the stops."[33] Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin wrote in 2011 that "no predictor of the future—not even Orwell—has ever been as right as Chayefsky was when he wrote Network."[34] The film ranks at number 100 in Empire magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Films of All Time.[35]
