User Score
8.4 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17

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  1. GilbertM.
    Oct 2, 2002
    9
    Wonderful, hypnotic true-life story. It's even topped and tailed by different versions of Mack the Knife. Watch it. Damn you.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. JeremyS.
    Mar 1, 2003
    10
    This movie was awesome. Anybody who likes true stories will love it.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. AlbertoF.
    Apr 26, 2003
    8
    Robert Redford's Quiz show is a very intelligent film that explores important issues concerning media and society, while at the same time remaining extremely engaging and entertaining.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  4. ChristopherJ.
    Mar 20, 2007
    9
    A fascinating inspection of behind-the-scenes integrity of Western entertainment. Entertaining rising action, a gut-wrenching climax and reasonably satisfying resolution.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  5. PatC.
    Jan 5, 2004
    8
    Tells a story without gloss or glory. So he lied. When will people learn there isn't something for nothing. The premise of quiz shows in general is a lie. Like gambling. Like Global Thermonuclear War. The only winning move is not to play. If TV was so dishonest when it was so unsophisticated, how honest is it now? This movie forces that question.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  6. J.RyanG.
    May 26, 2005
    7
    A very entertaining and beautiful, though painfully average, movie. It looks great, and I am thrilled every time by John Turturro's blazing performance, but what is Robert Redford trying to say? It is an audacious choice to make a large Hollywood movie about a decades-old game show controversy. Sounds like something Showtime might do, after HBO passes on the project. I think that it made its way into theaters thanks to Redford's name and his ability to polish otherwise unremarkable material (see "A River Runs Through It" and "The Horse Whisperer"). It's a nicely crafted, entertaining, and stunningly gorgeous movie, but it does not enlighten me to any aspect of human nature or show business that I didn't already know well or suspect. Give me something I can work with, not just look at. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  7. NathanT.
    Aug 11, 2006
    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. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  8. AaronS.
    Dec 31, 2002
    9
    One of the most educational and original films ever made! Only knock is that it feels a tad long... but who cares?
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  9. YoonC.
    Sep 21, 2003
    7
    Smart, engaging, and well-acted but a moralistic instructional than compelling drama. Robert Redford's good intentions and earnestness have always been too much though this is probably his best--and most restrained--since Ordinary People. Essentially, a key film in the recently trendy 50s bashing genre: a critique of the WASP rigged as the American ideal. But, are we in the 90s any more honest and virtuous? Someone should investigate the likes of American Idol, talk shows, and endless sewage of reality shows. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  10. JackL.
    Jul 25, 2007
    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!!!
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
Metascore

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
  1. 88
    Robert Redford has directed Quiz Show as entertainment, history, and challenge.
  2. As taut, sleek and guiltily comfortable as the classic Chrysler automobile we see at the beginning, Quiz Show is built for entertaining road performance.
  3. Robert Redford's best and richest directorial effort.