[After] zealously attacking the labyrinthine bureaucracy of metropolitan hospitals in Hospital, Paddy Chayefsky has now turned his fervor toward the inner workings of a large television network [in Network]. Chayefsky has dubbed his fictional network the United Broadcasting System, a self-enclosed world of corporate clashes and power struggles which heartlessly creates and destroys its own lifeblood. Television as a scapegoat for contemporary dehumanization and dying democratic values is an unwieldy metaphor, and Chayefsky uses highly questionable methods to prove his rather facile, specious points. His screenplay is certainly audacious, but the deliriousness smacks of an uncertainty of approach, a lack of focus that seems to have been transmitted at some point to director [Sidney] Lumet as well.

Most of the hysteria in Network revolves around UBS's attempts to relieve long-time news commentator [Howard Beale] from his broadcasting duties because of low ratings. When [Beale] threatens to blow his...