62) Quiz Show

Quiz Show (1994)

Director: Robert Redford

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Rob Morrow, John Turturro, David Paymer, Hank Azaria, Christopher McDonald, Paul Scofield, Martin Scorsese

1994 was one of the strongest years for Best Picture nominees at the Academy Awards for a long time. While Forrest Gump ended up taking the award, you would hardly have called it an upset if the gong had gone to The Shawshank Redemption or Pulp Fiction, although people may have been a bit puzzled if Four Weddings and a Funeral had got up. The film that rounded out this group was Robert Redford's Quiz Show.

This true story is set in the 1950s, quiz shows like "The $64,000 Question" and "Twenty-One" ruled the television ratings in America. Howard Stempel (Turturro) has been carry over champ on "Twenty-One" for a number of weeks, and millions have been tuning in to watch him approach the $100,000 winnings mark. But when sponsors and NBC executives notice that the ratings are starting to plateau and the people's interest in Stempel is waning they decide it is time for a change. They instruct Stempel to take a dive, and start feeding the answers to charming intellectual Charles Van Doren (Fiennes). As Van Doren's winning streak continues, his popularity goes through the roof. He becomes a folk hero, appearing on the cover of "Time" magazine, but all the while is conflicted with the knowledge he is defrauding a nation. When a bitter Stempel is swept under the carpet while trying to blow the lid on the fixing of the show, an idealistic young Congressional investigator, Dick Goodwin (Morrow), takes an interest in the case, seeing the opportunity to put television on trial.

I've got to admit, I was kind of underwhelmed with this film. It wasn't bad by any means. It was quite good. It just didn't grab me. It wasn't a case of having come into the film with overly high expectations either, as despite having a couple of friends mention that it was worth a look, I was largely unaware of the critical reception of the film (plenty of five star reviews). As I've thought about the film I'm actually finding it quite difficult to isolate what it was about the film disappointed me.

The film has a decent cast. Fiennes fits the bill perfectly as the disarming Van Doren. He does a fantastic job of displaying the conflict the character must have felt. Van Doren was, after all, a very intelligent man and you'd have to say would have been more than capable of doing quite well on the show on his own, but the lure of the money is too great. The relationship between Charles and his father Mark (played by Paul Scofield who received a Best Supporting Actor nomination) is particularly interesting. John Turturro is always great value as a supporting actor. Despite getting top billing for Quiz Show he is far from the main character. He features prominently early, but slips into the background in the middle of the film. He is very good as the anti-Van Doren. Stempel is awkward and uncomfortable. While Van Doren oozes intelligence, Stempel strikes people more as a sponge who has just absorbed information.

The one bit of casting which I really could not get past though was Rob Morrow as Dick Goodwin. Morrow is best known for his role as Joel Fleischman in "Northern Exposure" and to a lesser extent Don Eppes in "Numb3rs". I think the fact that I consider him primarily as a television actor made it quite difficult to accept him in the role which was arguably the main role of the film. Goodwin was our point of reference, he was the moral compass in the film and it just felt to me like the role demanded someone with a bit more gravitas, someone a bit more engaging. This may be overly harsh on him as it is not as though he put in a bad performance (although he was sporting these ridiculously thick eyebrows which stole the scene whenever he was on screen. Surely they must have been fake), but he just stood out when put next to Fiennes and Turturro.

Some notable people in minor roles in Quiz Show were fun to notice. I don't know if Redford called in some favours but he had directors Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Good Morning Vietnam) and Martin Scorsese playing small roles as "Today" host Dave Garroway and Geritol boss Martin Rittenhome respectively. If you keep you eyes peeled you also notice a young, pre-"Ally McBeal" Calista Flockhart playing one of Charles's students and a young Ethan Hawke in an uncredited role as one of Mark Van Doren's students.

Despite the fact that it is quite a good screenplay with some clever dialogue and good characterisation I found the structuring of the story a bit funny. Rather than having a standard Hollywood three act structure, this felt more like it had four or five shorter acts. When Van Doren finishes his time on the show, part of you feels like that is the end of the story, but then you remember there is the whole investigation which is just starting to get going and we move into the next act.

Interestingly, the makers of Quiz Show did attract criticism from some corners for applying some quite liberal poetic license in the retelling of the story, changing a few facts, tinkering with chronology and elevating the centrality of some characters, namely Goodwin. It can't help but strike you as slightly ironic that this film which seeks to shine a light on the television industry using entertainment as justification for deception in a way has been accused of the very same thing.

Quiz Show is an interesting film. It takes the central story of a rigged game show as a starting point to explore much bigger issues about the influence of big business, priorities of education and entertainment in the media, the cult of celebrity and the tension between Jews and WASPs in 1950s America. Redford does an admirable job of recreating the 1950s and tells a good story. Quiz Show is a good film, but for mine it is not a great film. There was just something about it which failed to engage me, but other than being unconvinced by the casting of Morrow, I can't put my finger on what it is.