90's Watch: Quiz Show (1994)

Watched:  01/15/2024

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Robert Redford

Selection:  Jamie

It's been 30 years since Quiz Show (1994) was released, and probably 29 since I've last seen it.  I'm now much older than Ralph Fiennes and Rob Morrow as our leads, and in the intervening years, the real Charles Von Doren, Richard Goodwin and Herb Stemple have passed (oddly with little in the way of news or media mention).

Sometimes watching younger film reviewers on YouTube or reading the film discussion of younger film enthusiasts, it's interesting to note the tilt to genre pictures of prior eras, and it's easy to forget that genre was largely in the margins thirty years ago.  At the time, something like Quiz Show was happily released by Disney when they had multiple outlets for producing movies for general and adult audiences - this one released through Hollywood Pictures (see also Touchstone and whatever their deal was with Miramax).  And we had name directors doing prestige pictures that were a thing to go see.

Director Robert Redford seems to have been enthused to work with a new generation of talent, picking up Ralph Fiennes after his turn in Schindler's List - and maybe immediately exploding a potential future for him of typecasting.  Rob Morrow left his hit show, Northern Exposure, to chase film stardom -likely certain this would propel him out of TV (considered lowbrow at the time).  We have John Turturro dipping his toe in mainstream movies.  A brunette Mira Sorvino plays a smart supportive wife in an era where smart supportive wives were what a lot of women were offered.

The movie is bursting with both quality character actors and "oh, yeah, that guy" actors in supporting or small roles.  David Paymer, Hank Azaria and Christopher McDonald are huge contributors here and have great bits.  There's a one second cameo by Ethan Hawke asking about Don Quixote, and Calista Flockhart and Illeana Douglas appear in bit parts, just before they broke.  And you can see plenty more folks you know from elsewhere.  Who didn't want to be near a Robert Redford movie?  Apparently the real Herb Stemple appears for a second.

It even features Martin Scorsese doing a part, and, man, Marty can act.  It's wild.

There's a "movie gloss" of the 1990's that folks of a certain age will remember well - surely something of a product of high quality film stock paired with good lighting, and before both cameras and lighting went digital/ LED.  And which seemed to suggest a certain quality to the movie by virtue of presentation.  There are vast sets - including the halls of Congress and NBC studios at 30 Rock.  

But at the end of the day, it still gets back to characters and acting - and the scene between Charles and his father is amazing, powerful stuff.  Hat tip to Mr. Scofield for his performance.  And it's such an interesting mix of somewhat schlocky bits with the elevated acting of a Ralph Fiennes and Paul Scofield - that stuff is deft and difficult when you're saying everything and nothing. Or Turturro's portrayal of Semple, at war with himself and in grievous pain he's not allowed to have or express because no one thinks he should have had what he got in the first place.

In 2024, the movie holds up in many ways.  The questions of morality, of falsely presenting oneself, and the possibly fictional struggle of Charles Van Doren to live up to his father's standards while riding his coattails works well as movie fodder.  As does the circling of friendship and possibly an adversarial relationship between Charles Van Doren and Dick Goodwin. The notion of integrity versus fame and fortune is universal, I guess (no one has ever offered me a Faustian bargain of this type), but you can still extrapolate into generalities.

It's also interesting to ponder that in the 1950's, people were actually tuning in for shows where the quiz answers were naming poets, mid-deep-cut history questions, etc... and that how networks and sponsors had their act down pat when called into question. 

But in 2024, it also seems quaint to think a quiz show on TV was going to be the worst of our problems with broadcast TV.   You kind of want to say "oh, Robert Redford, you hadn't seen anything yet" as the world settled into watching their news as staged as Pro-Wrestling and an endless sea of staged "reality shows", including supposed game shows we all know the producers are managing behind the scenes.   I cannot begin to imagine such hopes for television as a medium anymore.  And how it's now influenced how we consume news and theoretically real information, if everything is up for grabs as entertainment.  

As with all movies based on history, the movie itself is a fiction.  Film is not more pure than television, even if we consider(ed) it the elevated artform.  And one could spend hours unpacking what really happened versus what's on screen.  We're not going to do that here, but maybe seek out a doc on the actual events.

Not every note hits.  Not every moment works.  But this is what movies looked like when they tried.  And I'm wondering if I'm not alone in wondering if we can't get back to some of this.