Genre: Drama
Runtime: 125 minutes
Year: 1994
Starring: John Turtorro, Rob Morrow, Ralph Fiennes, Paul Scofield, Hank Azaria, David Paymer, Christopher McDonald, Paul Guilfoyle, Mira Sorvino
Description: A young lawyer, Richard Goodwin (Rob Morrow), investigates a potentially fixed game show. Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), a big time show winner, is under Goodwin's investigation.
Review: Director Robert Redford tells us the story of a memorable happening in TV history. “Quiz Show” starts with the television show “21”, a very tough trivia game. Contestant Herbie Stempel has been undefeated for weeks. The behavior of the somewhat geeky Stempel starts to annoy the producers of the show. When they meet Charles van Doren they have an idea: Van Doren is going to become the new winner of “21”. They give Van Doren all the answers and he will beat Stempel and be the new champion. Untill Dick Goodwin wants to find out the real truth behind the quiz show.
Nowadays people have probably already forgotten about this event, but at the end of the film you do wonder how this could have happened. And you also start questioning today’s quiz shows.
The best about “Quiz Show” is how director Redford managed to avoid the stereotypical good and bad characters. Ralph Fiennes is supposed to be the bad guy in the story, but his character us actually very kind and likeable. And John Turtorro is the good guy or hero, but his character Herbie Stempel is very unpleasant. Turtorro is very strong as Herbie Stempel and Ralph Fiennes as Van Doren is also excellent. Rob Morrow, who plays Dick Goodwin, is solid but his character is missing a bit of depth. The film is mainly about Fiennes and Turturro’s characters.
“Quiz Show” shows corruption in TV land, pretty impressive film directed by Robert Redford.
Rating: 3,5/ 5
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