I'll Take "Subtlety" For 800, Alex

Cynicism, corruption, the transition from the idyllic fifties to the revolutionary sixties: these are some heavy topics that aren't often addressed on-screen with subtlety or self-awareness. Eighteen years after starring in All the President's Men, Robert Redford stepped behind the camera to tackle another based-on-fact tale, the story of Congressional subcommittee investigator Dick Goodwin's involvement in uncovering the original reality-TV scandal that rocked the nation (and changed the way we watch TV for good); or, in other words, Quiz Show (1994). And the best part is, it embodies those elusive qualities mentionned above, and embodies them very well, too.

It's 1959, and Dick Goodwin (Rob Morrow, taking a break from Northern Exposure) is a young Harvard Law valedictorian trying to "postpone the inevitable" - working on Wall Street - by working for the government instead, as counsel for the Legislative Oversight Subcommittee for the U.S. House of Representatives. When game-show champion Herb Stemple (John Turturro) is asked by is asked by the producers of Twenty One to take a dive as he's no longer pulling in the ratings, he agrees...but, soon after, goes to all the way to the Grand Jury to expose the show's rigging. Bitter, hyper, immature, and somewhat unstable, Herb lacks both credibility and hard evidence, and the Grand Jury is concluded, its findings closed. It's those suspicious closed findings - the first in the U.S. in nearly a hundred years - that turn Dick's attention from passing to undivided, and he begins his investigation in earnest as he tries to get testimony from former contestants, as well as the current champion whom Herb "lost" to, Charlie Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes, before he was famous in the States). The very definition of clean-cut, all-American, and well-rounded (and, because he's Ralph Fiennes, good-looking), thirty-three year-old Charlie Van Doren is a master of astrophysics, a doctor of English, a professor at Columbia University, and the son of a Pulitzer Prize winner, Charlie really wants to be on a quiz show, and originally approaches producers Dan Enwright (David Payner) and Albert Freedman (Hank Azaria) for a shot on a less popular program. They, obviously, decide that he's just what they need to boost Twenty One's ratings even higher, and are up-front about their intention to do everything necessary to ensure that he remains champion and keeps those ratings going. Charlie is uncomfortable with this, and tries to make Dan and Albert let him win honestly, but eventually goes along with the deception. However, Charlie is not the villain of the story - he's not even a villain at all. It's easy to understand his choices, and it's easy to understand how he can continue to make them in spite of his nagging conscience. An affable guy, him and Dick form an odd sort of friendship, and Dick comes to want nothing more than to expose NBC's corruption while keeping Charlie out of the investigative spotlight.

With Quiz Show, Robert Redford showed himself to be as good behind the camera as he is in front of it. This film tackles typically over-dramatized themes with subtlety and grace, which by natural extension, renders them powerful and relevant. A multi-layered story, it's not just about a television scandal, but about the transition between two very different decades that have come to be the symbols of, respectively, the past and the present. It's astonishing that such a seemingly trivial thing as a rigged game show could mark the beginning of institutionalized distrust and cynicism, and yet, it did, and Redford plays this out with a deft and light touch, one example of this being through the ingenious use of two different versions of "Mack the Knife" over the opening and closing credits. The most memorable moment of the film encapsulates Redford's subtlety when, in the film's climax, a key player in the scandal confesses his guilt to the Grand Jury, and the audience's response coupled with the unspoken reality that condemns the audience's response (I'd love to talk about this more, but it is the climax, and I don't want to spoil it). In the era of reality-TV, we as audience have come to expect falsity from our programming; it must be remembered, while watching this film, that this was not an expectation prior to the Twenty One scandal. Most interestingly, Quiz Show was made well before reality-TV was infesting every network and channel - Redford made it because it was an interesting story, but fifteen years later, it's very much become a film for today's audiences.

The casting and acting is excellent, and once you stop being distracted by Ralph Fiennes confusing and inconclusive "neither here nor there" accent, you'll be able to sit back and enjoy watching him play a very normal person - a rarity, at least on this side of the pond. A former Oscar Best Picture nominee, Quiz Show isn't a particularly famous or well-known film, but it's a fine one, and one of the best of its kind you'll ever see. I can't recommend it enough.