Where to Watch
Region
Apple TV Store
Rent from
HD
$3.99
Amazon Video
Rent from
HD
$3.99
Google Play Movies
Rent from
$3.99
YouTube
Rent from
$3.99
Spectrum On Demand
Rent from
HD
$3.99
Prices last updated April 29, 2026. Pricing and availability may vary by region.
powered by JustWatch
About
When veteran anchorman Howard Beale is forced to retire his 25-year post because of his age, he announces to viewers that he will kill himself during his farewell broadcast. Network executives rethink their decision when his fanatical tirade results in a spike in ratings.
Theatrical
Nov 27, 1976
Box Office
$23.7M
Budget
$3.8M
Return
6.2x
DVD / Blu-ray
Jan 1, 1983
Theaters
1
Director
Sidney Lumet
Producers
Howard Gottfried, Fred C. Caruso
Music
Elliot Lawrence
Studio
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists
Latest
See all
Movie News
Faye Dunaway to Play Katharine Hepburn on Broadway
The legend will play a legend.
Oscars 2018: Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty Will Present Best Picture Again
Guess who's back? TMZ reports that Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty -- who played a pivotal part in last year's huge Oscar...
Ian McKellen Shares Great Advice for 'Faye & Warren' and All Awards Presenters
If only Sir Ian McKellen had spoken out before the 2017 Oscars, there would be no EnvelopeGate at all. The actor best k...
Steve Harvey Reacts to Oscars 2017 Gaffe: 'Call Me, Warren Beatty'
It's not really a fair comparison, but it was an easy comparison: When the Steve Harvey and his Miss Universe gaffe. Bu...
Oscars 2017 Best Picture Fail Explained: They Got 'Wrong Category Envelope'
D'oh! Be gentle with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. As it turns out, they had only a small role in creating the biggest...
17 Things You Never Knew About 'Mommie Dearest'
Before she died in 1977, Joan Crawford reportedly said that, if a movie were ever made from her life, Faye Dunaway was t...
Quotes
See all →Prepare for an outrageous motion picture experience
Taglines
Prepare yourself for a perfectly outrageous motion picture!
Television's Transformation Is Unavoidable
Taglines
Television will never be the same!
Human Connection Amidst Emotional Turmoil
Diana Christensen
Will you go back to your wife?
Max Schumacher
I'll give it a try, but I don't think she'll jump at it. But don't worry about me. I'll manage. I always have, I always will. I'm more concerned about you. You're not the boozer type. So I figure a year, maybe two, before you crack up. Or jump out of your 14th floor office window.
Diana Christensen
Stop selling, Max. I don't need you. I don't want your pain. I don't want your menopausal decay and death! I don't need you, Max. Now get out of here!
Max Schumacher
You need me. You need me badly. Because I'm your last contact with human reality. I love you. And that painful, decaying love is the only thing between you and the shrieking nothingness you live the rest of the day.
Diana Christensen
Then don't leave me.
Max Schumacher
It's too late, Diana. There's nothing left in you that I can live with. You're one of Howard's humanoids. If I stay with you, I'll be destroyed. Like Howard Beale was destroyed. Like Laureen Hobbs was destroyed. Like everything you and the institution of television touch is destroyed. You're television incarnate, Diana. Indifferent to suffering, insensitive to joy. All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality. War, murder, death are all the same to you as bottles of beer. And the daily business of life is a corrupt comedy. You even shatter the sensations of time and space into split seconds and instant replays. You're madness, Diana. Virulent madness. And everything you touch dies with you. But not me. Not as long as I can feel pleasure and pain and love. And it's a happy ending. Wayward husband comes to his senses, returns to his wife, with whom he has established a long and sustaining love. Heartless young woman left alone in her arctic desolation. Music up with a swell. Final commercial. And here are a few scenes from next week's show.
Tensions Rise Over Howard Beale's Controversial Message
Diana Christensen
(on the phone) You're his goddamn agent. I'm counting on you to talk some sense into the lunatic. Nobody wants to hear about dying democracy and dehumanization.
Max Schumacher
I'm sorry I'm late.
Diana Christensen
(still on the phone) We're starting to get rumbles from the agencies. Another couple of weeks and the sponsors will be bailing out! This is a breach of contract. This isn't the Howard Beale we signed. Get him off that corporate universe kick, or so help me, I'll pull it off the air! I told him, Lou! I've been telling him every day for a week! I'm sick of telling him. Now you tell him! (hangs up) Jesus Christ. You could help me out with Howard if you wanted to. He listens to you. You're his best friend.
Max Schumacher
I'm tired of all this hysteria about Howard Beale.
Diana Christensen
Every time you come from seeing somebody in your family you come back in one of these middle-aged moods.
Max Schumacher
And I'm tired of finding you on the god-damn telephone every time I turn around. I'm tired of being an accessory in your life! And I'm tired of pretending to write this dumb book about my maverick days in the great early years of television. Every god-damned executive fired from a network in the last twenty years has written this dumb book about the great early years of television. And nobody wants a dumb, damn, god-damn book about the great years of television...
Diana Christensen
Terrific, Max! Maybe you can start a whole new career as an actor.
Max Schumacher
After living with you for six months, I'm turning into one of your scripts. Well, this is not a script, Diana. There's some real actual life going on here. I went to visit my wife today because she's in a state of depression, so depressed that my daughter flew all the way from Seattle to be with her. And I feel lousy about that. I feel lousy about the pain that I've caused my wife and my kids. I feel guilty and conscience-stricken and all of those things that you think sentimental, but which my generation called simple human decency. And I miss my home because I'm beginning to get scared shitless. Because all of a sudden, it's closer to the end than it is to the beginning, and death is suddenly a perceptible thing to me - with definable features. You're dealing with a man that has primal doubts, Diana, and you've got to cope with it. I'm not some guy discussing male menopause on the ] Show'. I'm the man that you presumably love. I'm part of your life. I live here. I'm real. You can't switch to another station.
[[Barbara Walters]
Cast
Full credits →F
Faye Dunaway
Diana Christensen
W
William Holden
Max Schumacher
P
Peter Finch
Howard Beale
Robert Duvall
Frank Hackett
N
Ned Beatty
Arthur Jensen
B
Beatrice Straight
Louise Schumacher
W
Wesley Addy
Nelson Chaney
A
Arthur Burghardt
Great Ahmed Kahn
J
John Carpenter
George Bosch
J
Jordan Charney
Harry Hunter
K
Kathy Cronkite
Mary Ann Gifford
E
Ed Crowley
Joe Donnelly
J
Jerome Dempsey
Walter C. Amundsen
C
Conchata Ferrell
Barbara Schlesinger
G
Gene Gross
Milton K. Steinman
S
Stanley Grover
Jack Snowden
C
Cindy Grover
Caroline Schumacher
D
Darryl Hickman
Bill Herron
M
Mitchell Jason
Arthur Zangwill
P
Paul Jenkins
TV Stage Manager
