If this is how he wants to go out, this is how he goes out.
Somebody watching Network for the first time may be surprised to learn that it takes 55 minutes for Peter Finch to get to the bit about being mad as hell and not wanting to take it anymore. Since that's the moment that the film as a whole has been reduced to in the cultural lexicon, it's easy to imagine first-time viewers getting a little impatient with it, believing screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky and director Sidney Lumet are taking too long to get to the point. Heck, I've seen Network numerous times over the years and even I was wondering what the holdup was. Sure, Chayefsky takes the time to properly introduce the main characters -- veteran news anchor Finch, principled news division president William Holden, ambitious programming executive Faye Dunaway, and corporate hatchet man Robert Duvall -- and establish the setting and plot, but who needs all that? Just get to the part where Finch goes off the deep end and people start yelling out their windows already!
I'm kidding, of course. There's a reason why Network is considered a classic today and a lot of that has to do with Chayefsky's tightly constructed screenplay, which won the film one of its four Academy Awards. The other three were in the acting categories, with Finch posthumously being awarded Best Actor (and beating out the still-living Holden), Dunaway taking home Best Actress, and Beatrice Straight winning Best Supporting Actress for her role as Holden's wife. The film even picked up a nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category for Ned Beatty's turn as the corporate overlord who shows Finch the light when he makes the mistake of biting the hand the feeds him. I guess it never occurred to him that the hand might bite back.