QUIZ SHOW
A film review by David Landers
Copyright 1997 David Landers
RATING: *** 1/2 out of **** - 8.0 out of 10.0 CAST: John Turturro (Herbie Stempel), Rob Morrow (Dick Goodwin), Ralph Fiennes (Charles Van Doren), Paul Scofield (Mark Van Doren), David Paymer (Dan Enright), Hank Azaria (Albert Freedman) DIRECTOR: Robert Redford CERTIFICATION: PG-13 (USA) for language YEAR OF PRODUCTION: 1994 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS: Best Picture, Best Director (Redford), Best Supporting Actor (Scofield), Best Adapted Screenplay (Paul Attanasio)
QUIZ SHOW, an almost perfectly accurate true story, is based upon the events of the popular television show of the mid-50's, "Twenty-One". On this trivial game show, contestants were placed in isolation booths and then answered questions corresponding to a category of their choice, on which they wagered an amount of points on. The game went on until a player reached twenty one points on felt they had earned enough points to win. But, after ratings began to fall when players were struggling to break the zero mark, the producers decided to fix the game by giving the answers to a contestant before the game began.
QUIZ SHOW illustrates the true stories of two particular contestants, Herbie Stempel and Charles Van Doren. Stempel (John Turturro), a former G.I. and your Jewish man raising a family. Stempel has been the reigning champion on "Twenty-One" for many weeks and has accumulated thousands of dollars. In his mind, he is the best thing on television and the people love him. Although, in the mind of the show's producers, Herbie Stempel is getting old. Dan Enright (David Paymer), in particular, feels that the people are tired of seeing a "Jewish guy from Queens with bad teeth" and that the kids need someone better to look up to. Therefore, they need to find another contestant whom would be a worthy role model and the people will look up to and cheer to win. Someone who can defeat Stempel, even if they have to resort to cheating. Enter Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), a well-educated Professor from a widely recognized family. Van Doren had decided to try out for the game show "Tic Tac Dough" because his friends thought he would be good at that sort of thing. But when Albert Freedman (Hank Azaria), Enright's assistant, spots Van Doren, the two decide that they have found their soon-to-be-ruler of the "Twenty-One" kingdom. Van Doren is not too keen on the idea of receiving the answers ahead of time, so Enright tells Stempel that he is going to give the wrong answer, on purpose, in order to lose the game.
After Stempel loses the "throne" to Van Doren, he starts to feel cheated (which he should). Meanwhile, on his own, Dick Goodwin (Rob Morrow), a Harvard law graduate, has decided to start an investigation on "Twenty-One" to try and find out if there have been any wrongdoings. His investigation yields shocking results and leads to a trial for Enright and the others involved.
QUIZ SHOW is an extremely well done movie, and Robert Redford's direction is especially superb. The performances turned in by John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes, and Rob Morrow are very good, although it seems that Turturro stands out more than any. QUIZ SHOW is also very precise when it comes to explicating the true events that inspired the film. Definitely a film you should not miss.
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