Half a century later, Sidney Lumet’s Network remains a darkly humorous and relevant treatise on capitalism’s erosion of morality.

The film is as vicious and feeble as a wasp trapped in the jam it craves, and if Network is essential viewing it is because of this chronic confusion.

Network is good, strong stuff. Fine performances enhance a meaningful script.

Whether Network meant to or not, it prepared audiences for a new kind of journalism. One where the anchor isn’t pretending to be neutral anymore. One where outrage replaces reporting.