Quiz Show (1994) The Third One

It was a race to get Quiz Show from a library on the other side of town for me. I got it and I was so happy even though there were a couple bumps getting there. So, Quiz Show, what is it about? First off, it's a really good movie where Fiennes plays the good guy (for the most part). I'm as shocked as you are!

So, to start off, Quiz Show is about a game show called 21 set in the late 1950s. The show was rigged where producers would give the contestants the correct answers to questions about assorted topics. It stars John Turturro (who is more well known as the butler from Mr. Deeds or Agent Simmons in Transformers) playing Herbie Stempel, a contestant on 21 whose reign is ending after producers want him to take a dive for a new contestant; a handsome professor who comes from a prominent family, Charles Van Doren (Fiennes). Stempel takes the dive and the movie continues to describe the ongoing battle between Van Doren and his conscience, Stempel and trying to prove the show was rigged, and Congress and NBC. What is so amazing about Fiennes in this movie? He actually has a conscience compared to when he had no heart in Schindler's List. As I watched this, I felt bad for the pressure that was on him but then again, I wished he would just say the wrong answer. As a professor, he didn't want to set the example that cheating is okay. And what professor wants to send that message even on a game show where thousands of dollars can be won?

I feel astounded that in the last post I was saying Fiennes was playing a ruthless villian, and in this one I'm saying he plays a sympathetic man struggling with what's right and wrong. I'm just surprised that a man can play those extremely different characters. There aren't many great young actors who can do that nowadays is there? I'd like to see what comments I get off of that... If anyone is reading this.

If there is anything that I have learned in these three movies I have seen, it's that Fiennes can play the heartbroken sympathetic man, the cruel Nazi and the professor struggling with whether to tell the truth. He can play some pretty damn diverse characters and I haven't even seen all of his great movies. Isn't it amazing to see an incredible actor strech his wings and do something different? That's what I like about Fiennes. His range as an actor. But I'll get to that more later.

Favorite Quote: "Dad, I can't simply just tell them the truth... I can't... The problem is Dad, is it seems I was one of those frauds. They gave me the answers."

- Ralph Fiennes as Charles Van Doren in Quiz Show

See you next post!