Retrospective: Quiz Show (1994)

[Dragan Antulov]

QUIZ SHOW
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2000

These days game shows are viewed as symbol of everything
which is false and artificial on television. But few decades
ago, in the pioneering days of the new media, perception of
game shows was completely different. In 1950s America quiz
shows were not just the most popular form of television -
they were viewed as the living embodiment of American Dream.
They gave Average Joes their chance for instant fame and
fortune. They also awarded good old traditional values like
hard work and education over physical looks, strengths and
luck - those qualities beyond the reach of mere mortals. But
in 1958 that belief was forever shattered with a scandal
that would gradually turn American Dream into nightmare...
At least this is what screenwriter Paul Attanasio and
director Robert Redford are trying to convince us in their
1994 drama QUIZ SHOW.

The plot of the film is based on the true story that began
in 1958. In that time the most popular television show is
NBC's "Twenty One". For several weeks one of its
contestants, Herbert Stempel (played by John Turturro) is on
the winning streak, earning huge amounts of money in the
process. Producers, on the other hand, don't share his
enthusiasm because New York Jew with the bad teeth can't
make sponsors happy. So, they pressure Stempel to take a
dive and find new, more suitable contestant in the form of
Charles Van Doren (played by Ralph Fiennes), good-looking
WASP college professor belonging to American intellectual
aristocracy. After few months, disgruntled Stempel
unsuccessfully tries to alert public about the rigging but
his efforts are fruitless until he meets with ambitious
congressional investigator Richard Goodwin (played by Rob
Morrow).

Redford again showed his good directorial skills and the
recreation of late 1950s is almost flawless. The acting is
great - Ralph Fiennes is good choice for charismatic
intellectual unable to cope with difficult moral choices;
Turturro makes great contrast as victim nobody feels sorry
for and Morrow is great as relentless, idealist public
crusader. QUIZ SHOW is, therefore, film that shouldn't
disappoint the audience. But the same audience probably has
few reasons to be very enthusiastic about this piece of
cinema. Reason for that lies in antiquated subject matter.
Rigging of game shows perhaps represented something quite
shocking for 1950s public, but for newer generations, those
raised on Watergate, Iran-Contra and Clinton presidency and
those who now take media manipulation for granted, this
"scandal" looks terribly insignificant. Those viewers could
hardly accept Redford's view of these events as something
that represented "the loss of American innocence". At least
not without some sort of irony, but the irony is something
this film terribly lacks. Redford takes everything in this
film too seriously, and, in the end, this film looks
outdated and quixotic, resembling one of its characters in
his last futile crusade against emerging power of
television. However, this cinematic effort, although failed
and, ironically, better suited for television as a medium,
still represents one of more interesting (and rare) examples
of socially conscious 1990s Hollywood films.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

Review written on July 18th 2000

Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
Fido: 2:381/100
E-mail: dragan....@st.tel.hr
E-mail: dr...@purger.com
E-mail: dragan....@altbbs.fido.hr

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