Quiz Show

Name: Quiz Show
Genre: Drama, History
Released: September 14, 1994
Duration: 133 min
Rating: 92
Cast: John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes

1994

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 27 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 116 Ratings

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8.5

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8.5	User Score Universal acclaim based on 116 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Buena Vista Pictures | Release Date: September 14, 1994 | PG-13

Starring: John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes

Summary: This fact-based film tells the story behind the quiz show scandal of the 1950s, focusing on "Twenty-One" champion Charles Van Doren (Fiennes).

Director: Robert Redford

Genre(s): Drama, History

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 133 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Dolores Barclay

Robert Redford's intricately woven and brilliant movie Quiz Show paints a witty but poignant portrait of that tainted time on television, when Eisenhower's America lost its innocence. [15 Sept 1994]

100

Staff (Not Credited)

Redford has fashioned (from Paul Attanasio's brilliant screenplay) an impeccably nuanced Faustian drama which aspires to capture America's fall from grace: that point at the end of the '50s when the country first lost faith in itself. Read full review

100

Peter Stack

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. Read full review

Staff(Not credited)

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. Read full review

Steve Davis

Although the stellar contributions to this supremely intelligent film are many, there's no mistake that the presence of director Redford dominates the film. Read full review

Rick Groen

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. Read full review

Desson Thomson

As taut, sleek and guiltily comfortable as the classic Chrysler automobile we see at the beginning, "Quiz Show" is built for entertaining road performance. The facts (at least, the dramatically inconvenient ones) are left on the side of the road. Redford retains the emotional engine of the Van Doren affair and drives this baby all the way—presumably—to the bank. Read full review

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User Reviews

raydff

Jun 19, 2013

"I can't decide if you think too much of me or too little." Redford keeps enlightening me on issues I wasn't previously aware of. Eye-opening (as to what networks could get away with) and entertaining. It is everything you could possibly ask for in a film.

5 of 5 users found this helpful50

NathanT.

Aug 11, 2006

"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 "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 found this helpful

claudiuanophel

Feb 12, 2014

A very well created fresco of this behind the scenes film. It caches in a brilliant way how mass media, this giant agent of socialization manipulates people. It just gives them what they want to see, keeping them away from the real problems of life. Even one of the greatest intellectualA very well created fresco of this behind the scenes film. It caches in a brilliant way how mass media, this giant agent of socialization manipulates people. It just gives them what they want to see, keeping them away from the real problems of life. Even one of the greatest intellectual figures of that time is trapped in this game, giving us a great example of the strength that surrounds the men we cannot see. They are simply there, playing with the weakness of the human being, turning it in their favour.… Expand

3 of 3 users found this helpful30

Spangle

Jun 2, 2015

Honestly, I was not expecting to like this one as much as I did, but yet, here I am. Quiz Show is a truly great film from the typically sure handed Robert Redford featuring strong performances from a great cast that includes John Turturro, Rob Morrow, and Ralph Fiennes. A film about quizHonestly, I was not expecting to like this one as much as I did, but yet, here I am. Quiz Show is a truly great film from the typically sure handed Robert Redford featuring strong performances from a great cast that includes John Turturro, Rob Morrow, and Ralph Fiennes. A film about quiz shows and how fixed they truly are, this one really manages to create incredible tension throughout as you watch everything unfold. There were numerous scenes that had me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what unfolded, which I most certainly did not expect. An interesting film about networks, how they operate, and how they create/market celebrities to the public, Quiz Show is a film that often gets lost in the shuffle of the 1990s, but that is too bad. Ultimately, nothing it reveals is overly groundbreaking, yet it still manages to really captivate its viewers and provide an interesting statement on networks and the idea of celebrity. Overall, Quiz Show is a very well made, well written, and well acted, film that works on multiple levels.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DawdlingPoet

Apr 30, 2022

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is a film that tells an interesting story. I gather its based on a true story and thats what appealed to me about it. I know we've had a scandal here in the UK about rigged quiz games on TV but this was obviously decades before the one I'm thinking of and I was curious how the press and the relevant characters were treated and dealt with the situation at hand. As with most films, it's a bit slow to build the plot but I thought the social commentary side of it was quite intriguing, with looks being promoted over assumed intelligence (regarding hopes of gaining raings etc.). I thought it was a well made film which tells an interesting story, even though there are moments which seemed perhaps a little overly/unnecessarily cheesy. The underlying themes were interesting enough to keep me watching. I thought the performances by Ralph Fiennes and John Turturro were pretty decent.

There are some good quotes too, the one that stood out for me, mentioned I think for a 2nd time, right at the end of the film, being 'Give the public what they want'.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

amheretojudge

Apr 2, 2019

The Applause Sign.

Quiz Show Redford's show is more choreographed for me than it is rigged. And boy what a dance it is, it fiddles with well coordinated multiple characters that puts an elegant and corrupted show on the screen. The director Robert Redford has long productive procedure,The Applause Sign.

Quiz Show

Redford's show is more choreographed for me than it is rigged. And boy what a dance it is, it fiddles with well coordinated multiple characters that puts an elegant and corrupted show on the screen. The director Robert Redford has long productive procedure, that is more thought provoking than it is gripping. And this is where the film wins all the points, with a nail biting personal and emotional crisis that puts you right on the trial is not an experience you usually get. Even the courtroom drama doesn't go accordingly. Redford wisely builds up the entire film to a definite scenario and then when it reaches its last stage, he shakes up the entire base or premise of that topic.

And this vulnerable, hanging in the middle, feeling is a delightful to behold. What was a fight of good vs. evil, is now evolved into something beyond a personal vendetta or the glory that everyone is snatching to conquer it in this show business. And this juxtaposition of an entertaining field as such and what it represents is beautifully colored in the final note of the film. Paul Attanasio's adapted screenplay criticizes its own skillful script, and manages to "check and mate" himself out.

Ralph Fiennes is force to be reckoned with, as he accepts all the undeserved fame but his true self bubbles up in a glossy champagne glass when his father played by Paul Scofield goes head to head, it can leave you shook at the brisk of your seat as they peel each other off naked on screen. The other supporting cast has done a decent work where John Turturro stands alone for his acting that is basically on steroids. Quiz Show is less of a show than it pretends to be, this pack of gusto will make you think twice, before you tune in any show, from now on.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Mr_Muumi

Jul 14, 2013

The Quiz Show is slow-paced, clever historical drama that doesn't need to rely on other means of capturing the viewer. The role played by John Turturro as book-smart, but in other ways simple-minded contestant Herb Stempel deserves a separate mention.

0 of 5 users found this helpful05

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