On Q List of Movie Reviews

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Quiz Show (1994)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 1/03, 5/19

QuizS
5/19: "What motion picture won the Academy Award for 1955?"

That's the question Herb Stempel will have to live with forever. Often cited as his favorite movie, he feigned not knowing the answer to the question: Marty. It was the beginning of the end of Twenty-One, one of many rigged game shows on television during the 50's.

Why it did have to happen is the pilot episode was a disaster with both contestants not knowing the answer to any of the questions which resulted in a 0-0 tie. How could they for these "who cares" questions such as "Name the second, third, fourth, and fifth wives of Henry the Eighth and describe their fates" and "Four great voyages were made by Columbus, different places were among his discoveries, tell us on which voyage (the first, second, third, or fourth) each of the following places was discovered"?

Before becoming Twenty-One's most infamous contestant, Charles Van Doren, as in "Van Doren Van Doren," hailed from an eminent family which included two Pulitzer Prize winners. Knowing full well he was cheating by being fed the answers beforehand caused him to sell out his family's reputation due to the irresistible temptation of winning over $100,000 in a short amount of time when the teaching salary at Columbia University was only $4,400 a year. Hence, a movie had to be made: Quiz Show.

It's a great history lesson even though there are some liberties with the truth. I bet you never knew this: nearly all of the contestants were from the New York City area. If you watch the actual episodes on YouTube, it's easy to tell they were all faking it with their well-timed pauses, hesitant comments, and worried looks. In short, these fraudsters were bad actors. By the way, Vivienne Nearing, who "defeated" Charles Van Doren to end his long reign, also cheated by knowing the answers beforehand. Some lawyer she is, having been disbarred for six months after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor perjury charge.

Charles Van Doren passed away last month at the age of 93 while Herb Stempel is still alive. To this day, the latter says he still gets calls from time to time whenever the movie is on TV: "What motion picture won the Academy Award for 1955?" At least, he can rest assured that John Turturro gave the performance of his career by playing him. Ralph Fiennes is excellent, and so is the Oscar-nominated Paul Scofield as his father.

By the way, a split infinitive means there's an adverb between "to" and a verb which is considered to be grammatically incorrect. An example is "to soundly ring" when it should be "to ring soundly." "To boldly go where no man has gone before" is popular as it's from Star Trek.

All in all, Quiz Show is a very interesting movie at the hands of Robert Redford.