QUIZ SHOW
A film review by Max Hoffmann
Copyright 1994 Max Hoffmann
Rating: A
A common complaint amongst film critics is "why aren't there more literate scripts available?" QUIZ SHOW gives signs of hope that the art of writing isn't dead in Hollywood and that we need not only look to independent films for thoughtful content. Paul Attanasio's script takes what could have been a tepid thriller (the Quiz Show scandals of the late 50s) and delivers a telling parable about the emptiness of the post war American Dream and the golden bubble that surrounds and protects TV networks and their sponsors.
The film is riddled with telling symbols (e.g. a '58 Chrysler, a radio announcement of Sputnik) but is never heavy handed. Deft Direction by Robert Redford and keen performances by Ralph Fiennes, John Turturro and Rob Morrow dovetail perfectly with the carefully honed script. Redford departs from the usually overlight, "cable TV quality" sets and camera work so common in recent 20th Century period pieces. QUIZ SHOW perfectly captures the colors and textures of the Eisenhower years. Although I was only 4 years old when the "Twenty One" scandal broke, enough of the 50s icons survived throughout my childhood for me to recognize the authenticity of Redford's almost tangible palette. From plastic covered furniture to carefully coifed contestants, the images ring true from that era of rampant consumerism, of a generation that had gone through 15 years of depression and world war without "disposable income," before the manifestation of its American Dream.
The film deftly weaves several themes together, from assimilation and exclusion of Jews from "the good life," to the lengths that a scion of a literary family will go to to match his father's fame. Though the 50s audience that is "rocked" by this scandal may initially seem naive to us, they should appear all too familiar, with our current national passion for the rise and fall of icons like Michael Jackson or Tonya Harding. Charles Van Doren and Herbie Stemple were the overnight mega celebrities of their day. The TV audience is almost a fourth main character, always at the center of the decisions being made on their behalf.
At the film's end, the credits roll past slow motion footage of that same 50s TV audience, mindlessly laughing at some piece of fluff. Like the distorted mirror that captured a blurred swastika at the end of CABARET, this "mirror" may reflect an image we're not all that comfortable with.
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