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Quiz Show
Metascore
88 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 13 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
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  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Peter Stack
    100
    Robert Redford's exceptionally handsome and provocative Quiz Show manages a trick that few films even dare try -- to take a hard look at personal and public moral issues and still provide dazzling entertainment.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    100
    Working from a superb script by Paul Attanasio, Redford has caught the way a show like Twenty-One offered a carny-barker version of the American Dream.
  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Elvis Mitchell
    100
    A supremely elegant and thoughtful parable. [14 September 1994, p. C11]
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  4. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Staff(Not credited)
    90
    Redford blows the dust off a 35-year-old scandal about rigged TV quiz shows and makes it snap with up-to-the-minute relevance.
  5. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    90
    Robert Redford's handsome, smartly constructed new film stands likely to capture the imagination of the educated, culturally inclined public.
  6. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Steve Davis
    89
    Although the stellar contributions to this supremely intelligent film are many, there's no mistake that the presence of director Redford dominates the film.
  7. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    Robert Redford has directed Quiz Show as entertainment, history, and challenge.
  8. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    88
    One of the reasons that Quiz Show is so extraordinary is because it spins a story as compelling on the personal level as on the national one.
  9. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    88
    One of those rare films that manages to be both terrifically entertaining and consistently thoughtful, it turns an apparently tame deception into a very rich metaphor.
  10. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    80
    As taut, sleek and guiltily comfortable as the classic Chrysler automobile we see at the beginning, Quiz Show is built for entertaining road performance.
  11. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    80
    Robert Redford's best and richest directorial effort.
  12. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Staff(Not credited)
    70
    It's a blessedly old-fashioned, well-made and well-acted narrative.
  13. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Terrence Rafferty
    70
    The picture's real strength is its witty, vigorous evocation of the fifties media world.
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User Reviews

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User Score
8.4 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. JackL.
    8
    A very intelligent and thoughtful film. Also very entertaining of course. It makes us ponder on the morally complex issues of fame, money, reputation, free choice, temptation, justice, and truth. Good film!!!… Full Review »
  2. ChristopherJ.
    9
    A fascinating inspection of behind-the-scenes integrity of Western entertainment. Entertaining rising action, a gut-wrenching climax and reasonably satisfying resolution.… Full Review »
  3. NathanT.
    10
    "Quiz Show" can proudly take its place as the most underrated of all great 90s films. Taken from a brief passage in Richard Goodwin's excellent "Remembering America: A Voice From the Sixties," it tells the story of corruption in a game show circa 1957. Howard Stempel, the Jewish working class intellectual played by John Turturro to perfection, is made to take a dive so that the good looking affluent Charles Van Doren can improve the show's waning ratings. Ralph Fiennes gives an incredible performance as a good decent WASP thinker; a man who has seen people do manual labor---as he was walking to his class on astrophysics or Germanic literature. Rob Morrow plays Dick Goodwin, the bright-eyed attorney who smells something totally afoul with the show and follows every lead he can with only nominal support from the government office where he works. Why does any of this matter now? The point is that the specifics of the quiz show scandal don't matter really, but there ramifications have been felt more than ever in the age of Enron and corporate malfeasance. This is Robert Redfiord's meditation on the slow death of everything America once stood for, yet he never indicts us as viewers. The ethical conflicts seen in the main characters, especially Van Doren, rise to the level of Shakespearian drama in parts. Also enjoy phenomenal supporting work from Mira Sorvino as Goodwin's wife ("You are like the Uncle Tom of the Jews," she says to him near the climax) and English actor Paul Scofield as Van Doren's father in a performance that was nominated for an Academy Award. All of these performances could have been nominated. They're that good. Above all though, "Quiz Show" succeeds on the most important level a film can: it's ridiculously entertaining.… Full Review »
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