
Network(1976)
dir. Sidney Lumet
An anchor's breakdown, monetized live on air.
Where to watch: Rent on Apple TV, AmazonLetterboxd ↗
A veteran news anchor's on-air breakdown becomes a ratings sensation, and the network that employs him decides to exploit it rather than stop it.
Why it’s here
Predicted the entire attention economy fifty years early — outrage as content, a network cashing in on a man's collapse in real time. Nothing about it reads as dated; if anything it reads like a documentary that arrived too soon.
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