6/20/09

"It's not like we're criminals. This is entertainment."


I watched the movie Quiz Show that is about the 1950s Quiz Show Scandal, where they were feeding certain contestants the answers. The whole thing was staged, and despite this film being set in a specific period, there are some deeper elements to it that say something larger--exposing the underbelly of big business and corporations, and how they will manipulate the audience for the sake of ratings.



Directed by Robert Redford, he's probably the best actor-cum-director out there. Maybe one could argue for Clooney, but Eastwood? Costner? Ron Howard? Forget it. This film is far better than any Ron Howard movie. The acting is good, the characters real and the scenes are not stagey (despite the film being about a quiz show that is).

The man who is the star is played by Ray Fiennes and he plays Charles Van Doren who is, no less than the son of the Neglected Poet Mark Van Doren.