Quiz Show

Everyone loves a good game show, don't they? Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Jeopardy, The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, Deal or No Deal, they're all entertaining, bringing millions of viewers in. There's always something shady though -- to me at least -- about a lot of game shows. Some seem far too easy, others just the opposite and far too difficult. Let the conspiracy theories fly when whopping amounts of money are involved. Based on a true story, 1994's Quiz Show jumps right into some backstage shenanigans.

Starring on one of 1950 TVs most popular shows, Twenty One, New Yorker Herb Stempel (John Turturro) is on a huge hot streak, having won the trivia show and advanced in six straight weeks with thousands of dollars of winnings. His ratings have plateaued though, and the studio wants a new winning contestant, forcing Herb to answer a question incorrectly as he faces personable, good-looking Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes). A very intelligent man and trivia whiz himself, Van Doren goes on a crazy streak, winning week after week and making the money to boot, American audiences falling for him instantly and catapulting him to stardom. Watching the show though, a Congressional lawyer/investigator Dick Goodwin (Rob Morrow) is suspicious of what's going on, smelling some sort of fix or conspiracy. He couldn't be right, could he?

From director Robert Redford, this 1994 film received almost unanimous support from critics and fans, even earning nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay (no wins). It is based off the true story of the game show Twenty One, a highly popular television game show that caused a scandal when it was revealed contestants were coached and/or given answers. The end result is a highly polished, well told story that features a great cast and a well-written script that is easy to appreciate. In the end unfortunately, something is missing that keeps it from being a classic. I liked it, but as the movie moves along I liked it a little less. More on that later.

With a deep cast assembled, the main focus nonetheless remains on three characters; Morrow's Goodwin, Fiennes' Van Doren and Turturro's Stempel. Three young, talented actors all bring these real life individuals to life, not just cardboard cutouts of real people. I thought Turturro should have gotten the Best Supporting Actor nod, but that instead went to screen vet Paul Scofield as Van Doren's father. Turtorro's Herb is quirky to say the least, a man with seemingly infinite knowledge who resents what was taken away from him and wants to gain some fame in the aftermath. As his replacement, Fiennes is smooth, suave and likable as Van Doren, the contestant who questions the morals of what they're doing but eventually goes along with it. The actor without much of a following, Morrow too does a fine job as Goodwin, a dogged investigator who stops at nothing to get truth and answers when he senses something amiss. It's a good trio to lead the way.

Along with Scofield as Van Doren's father, 'Quiz' is almost showing off with its talented cast. David Paymer and Hank Azaria are an excellent team together in their sliminess, Dan Enright and Albert Freedman, the Twenty One executive and his assistant who head the behind the scenes corruption on the show (with some higher studio "encouragement"). Christopher McDonald is good in a smaller part as Jack Barry, the smooth, popular host of Twenty One. Also look for Mira Sorvino as Goodwin's wife, and director turned actor Martin Scorsese as an advertising executive who more than has his say in how contestants perform (i.e. = who advances and who doesn't). As well, there's a handful of parts for actors who would become recognizable faces on film and television in the coming years. Check out the cast listing or give it a watch and see who you can spot.

One other aspect worth mentioning is the attention to detail. Everything from the clothes and wardrobe to the haircuts and cars, furniture and decor, sets to dialogue, it feels like we've been transported to the 1950s. Everyone almost always seems to be smoking a cigarette/cigar in a nice little touch too. More than the look though, we get a sense of what 1950s America and television was like. We see families surrounding TVs to catch the latest installment of their favorite shows. Quite a departure from the 6,000 channels available to most viewers now, huh? We see news spreading at a different pace -- no Twitter, Facebook, e-mail -- and an innocence balancing out with a more sinister reasoning with dollars as the bottom line. It's the little things.

So enough with the positives. It clocks in at 133 minutes, and from the 60-minute mark on, it feels long. Very long. Movies almost solely dependent on talking, dialogue and a script are tricky. The dialogue and acting is all good here with a lot of talent putting it all together, but it feels repetitive, even slow-moving in long stretches. I won't say self indulgent, but it's awful close. When the tension and drama should be ratcheted up during the Congressional hearings, I'd already lost interest. So much time is spent on the relationship between Goodwin and Van Doren that it takes away from the natural drama of the situation. It's still a good movie, but the issues here definitely affected the final ranking, tearing it down a notch.

Quiz Show (1994): ** 1/2 /****

Uprising

Thanks to Andrzej Wajda's World War II trilogy -- especially 1957's Kanal -- I feel like I've got a better grasp of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Warsaw uprising of 1944. Watch enough WWII movies and read enough books about the war and you're going to hear about the Warsaw Ghetto because of the immensity of the place and the thousands of people who lived there.  But it is a part of history and WWII that so often gets lost in the background, overshadowed by major campaigns and important players in the war. Part of that you can chalk up to a story that in its historical accuracy is not going to appeal to the masses.

The Polish take on the Ghetto is one thing, but in a bigger picture Holocaust movies are going to find success in niches among audience members. An NBC TV miniseries originally shown in 2011, Uprising is one of the few ventures into the true story of the Warsaw Ghetto and the subsequent uprising in 1944 as the Polish Jews rebelled against their German occupiers. Like so many war stories, there will be no happy ending, and that's part of the appeal to me. It's honest, it's depressing, and it tells a story that couldn't be faked.  There are historical inaccuracies, generalizations made for the sake of time and simplicity, but the heart of the story works, and that's the most important thing.

It's 1939 and Adolf Hitler's Germany army sweeps across Poland, forcing a surrender within a month. In Warsaw, over 350,000 Polish Jews are forced to move into a ghetto where they are kept apart from the city at large in a walled-off portion of the city under German guard. Among the thousands of Jews is Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria), a musician and teacher, and Antek (David Schwimmer), an intellectual and long-time friend of Mordechai. The months turn into years and both men -- among thousands of other people -- grow tired of their German occupiers while the head of the Jewish council, Adam Czerniakow (Donald Sutherland), struggles to fight for the rights of the Jews. A Jewish resistance mounts in the city to fight off the German soldiers, but the German high command sends an officer, General Jurgen Stoop (Jon Voight), into Warsaw to wipe out the rebellion to a man.

Generally historically accurate with a few detours here and there toward poetic license, Uprising at its best gets the heart and message right. The Polish Jews were not alone in their efforts as is shown, receiving help from outside forces into the Polish underground.  The point of the story though was to show the bravery, the courage, and the persistence shown by the Polish Jews in the face of almost certain defeat.  Heavily outnumbered, under-supplied and fighting a losing battle, the resistance fought on for over 40 days before finally being overrun and ultimately defeated.  Courage is one thing, but maintaining that courage when staring death in the face takes it to a whole other level.  They fought on when they could have abandoned the cause. Thousands paid for that decision with their lives, digging their heels in and fighting back.

The TV miniseries isn't as popular as it was in the late 1970s and 1980s, but it is still that great middle ground between an hour-long TV show and a feature film.  A positive you can always take away is the ability to assemble strong casts for more speaking roles than you might see in a typical movie. Uprising may not have the star quality, but the cast turns in solid, all-around performances. Azaria and Schwimmer are the leads, stepping up to the plate as the resistance leaders.  Among the other resistance fighters are Leelee Sobieski as a young woman, the last surviving member of her family, Stephen Moyer as Kazik, the jokester, fighter and ladies man to go with Sadie Frost, Radha Mitchell, Eric Lively, Alexandra Holden, John Ales, and Andy Nyman as a Jewish police officer working with the resistance. Sutherland and Voight have parts that are cameos more than major parts with Cary Elwes playing a German filmmaker making a documentary about the Ghetto.

With the exception of the premium cable channels, TV can be censored within an inch of its life. My worry going in to this miniseries was exactly that, a story of a part of the Holocaust that would be as vanilla and boring as humanly possible.  No worries here because this miniseries did not pull any punches.  The story is dark, filthy and cynical. The firefights back and forth are bloody and surprisingly graphic for a show aired on national TV. Not just blood for the sake of blood either, the battles are moving. You see the characters develop and change over the course of years. At times, the portrayals are a little much, making the Poles the saintly individuals with no flaws and the Germans as the sadistic, irredeemable pigs. It's a little stereotypical, but the portrayal of the Germans wasn't too far-fetched. It doesn't feel like a miniseries though, and that's always a good thing.

Clocking in at just under three hours, director Jon Avnet manages to cram five years worth of story into 177 minutes. For the most part, he does a good job balancing it out, spending a half hour or so establishing everything and then quickly jumping right into the resistance effort and eventually the Warsaw Uprising.  The pacing is good, always moving along and always entertaining. There are only a few instances where things feel rushed, but one of them ends up being a major flaw. The explanation is going to have some major SPOILERS though so be forewarned.

The uprising eventually turns toward the Germans as the resistance is eventually overwhelmed. Azaria's Mordechai and the remaining members of his company are cornered in an underground bunker while others narrowly escape into the ruined streets above. Sobieski's Tosia leads an escape while the others await the German attack. The only problem? We don't see it...at all.  There's not even a flashback of the attack, a quick montage, a couple shots of their dead bodies much less the actual attack. Azaria is the main character yet he's dispatched off-screen with no explanation. Was the movie running too long? Was something cut? He deserved better, and it seems like a missed effort. As a tribute to the character and the resistance, I feel like as a viewer we needed to see these valiant freedom fighters in their last ditch effort.

It's nothing by any means that derails the movie, just a complaint. The ending is a downer, but with a touch of an uplifting note.  As heavy as the casualties were on both sides in the uprising, there were Polish Jew survivors, just not many. Not always spot-on in terms of accuracy, Uprising still manages to get the message across, the spirit of the Polish resistance.  An underrated, well-handled miniseries dealing with one of history's generally forgotten tragic chapters.

Uprising <---Youtube clips (2001): ***/****