Network

Network (1976) is Sidney Lumet's blistering satire of television news, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Aging anchor Howard Beale is about to be fired when his ratings collapse.

So on live air, Beale promises to shoot himself the following week. The outrage sends his numbers soaring. Rather than pull a broken man off the schedule, the network reinvents him as the "mad prophet of the airwaves," howling his famous line: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore." William Holden plays the old-school newsman who still believes journalism owes the public something. Faye Dunaway is the ice-cold programming chief who sees human misery as ratings gold. Robert Duvall and Ned Beatty supply the corporate menace.

Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay reads like prophecy: decades before reality TV and clickbait, it predicted what news would become once numbers ran the room. The film took four Academy Awards, including wins for Peter Finch, Dunaway and Beatrice Straight. Stream Network (1976) online on iFILM.