'Network' Marks 50-Year Milestone With Special 4K Release — Why It Feels 'Timely'

Fifty years ago, Rocky was released and would win Best Picture at the 1977 Academy Awards. But it was up against some stiff competition, with Network among the hot contenders.

In honor of the 50-year milestone, The Criterion Collection just released a 4K UHD + Blu-Ray Special Edition of Network, whose talented ensemble includes the late, great Robert Duvall.

And right now, there’s a 30% discount across Criterion’s website — meaning the film’s 2-disc special-edition release is marked down from $49.95 to $34.97, and the single-disc is down to $31.96 from $39.95.

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“This media satire, directed by Sidney Lumet from a brilliantly incisive script by Paddy Chayefsky, is an X-ray of the corrupted soul of a corporate-dominated America, startlingly prescient in its anticipation of today’s outrage-driven news cycle,” the site’s synopsis of Network reads, for those not yet familiar with the Oscar-winning masterpiece. “At a struggling television network, ambitious executive Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) finds herself with a hit on her hands when disgruntled newscaster Howard Beale (Peter Finch) goes off script, transforming himself into a mad-as-hell prophet railing against the ills of modern society.

The description continues, “But can she control the populist revolution they have unleashed on the airwaves? Garnering four Oscars, including for Dunaway, Finch, and Chayefsky, this no-holds-barred New Hollywood classic remains as fearlessly funny as it is unnervingly relevant.”

On Saturday, Feb. 21, Rolling Stone noted that Network still “somehow feels more shocking, more sobering, and more timely than ever” these days.

“In 1976, the idea that putting ‘a manifestly irresponsible man on national television,’ preaching a no-bulls–t gospel of sticking it to the Man, as well as pitching a show that hopes to turn political firebrands into the next sweeps-week superstars, was outrageous,” the magazine’s David Fear writes in an article published Saturday, Feb. 21. “In 2026, both would be considered tame — though, to be fair, the programs would still generate an abundance of memes and have millions of followers on their respective YouTube channels.”