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But having said all this, one must make a final admission about Network. There is a lunatic energy about it. Every once in a while, Chayefsky abandons the struggle to dramatize his ideas and has somebody, usually Holden, just turn to the camera and spout off. In those moments, his concern — and sometimes his mother wit — comes blazing through and the picture takes on a life not found in safe, sane, well-calculated movies.
There are not enough of these moments to save the picture, but they do make one eager for the writer's first effort in what is surely his true metier — the pamphlet.