October 31, 1994 -- ``Quiz Show'' is a uniquely American tragedy, told with subtlety and complexity. It is an excellent film for a college town like Laramie.
Directed by Robert Redford, the film tells the story of a scholar, from a renowned family of scholars, Charles Van Doren, who falls prey to some simple con men.
Van Doren (played by Ralph Fiennes) participates in a television quiz show in the 1950s and agrees to be given the answers in advance, even though he knows most of the answers already. Van Doren knows what he is doing is wrong, but he likes the money he is getting on the show and he likes being suddenly more famous than his renowned father, Mark Van Doren (played by Paul Scofield).
Enter Dick Goodwin (played by Rob Morrow of ``Northern Exposure'' fame) a cocky young lawyer for a Congressional oversight committee.
Goodwin senses there is something fishy with the game show and digs relentlessly to find out what it is. He finally meets Herbie Stempel (played by John Turturro), a frustrated contestant who was talked into taking a ``dive'' on the show so that Van Doren could become a star.
Fiennes (who won a best actor Oscar for his role in ``Schindler's List'') does a terrific job as Van Doren, a very complex characterization. Turturro also does a fine job as the whiny Stempel. Scofield (another best actor academy award winner for ``A Man for All Seasons'') does a wonderful job in a supporting role, looking uncannily like the late Joseph Campbell. Morrow sinks his teeth into his plumb role of the ambitious young attorney.
This is a beautifully crafted film. Expect to hear of it again at Oscar time. It rates an A.
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