Network (1976)

A news anchor announces on air that he will kill himself, ratings soar, and his network builds a programming schedule around his rage. Paddy Chayefsky's script is aimed at television, but its real subject is power: who owns the airwaves, and what happens to politics when outrage becomes the product. It won four Oscars, including best screenplay and three for its cast, Peter Finch's among them, awarded after his death. Ned Beatty's boardroom sermon on the global economy is the speech the film is really building to. Talky and theatrical, and more relevant now than when it opened.