American cynicism regarding its institutions is born

Rating: 10/10 (7 February 2010)

This has always been one of my favorite movies. I generally have to be "in the mood" for a particular film, but I will always sit down and watch this one. It seems strange today in this post-Watergate era to believe it could have been considered scandalous at one time for quiz shows to be rigged. For that matter, today, I doubt many people would be surprised if you told them the Congressional hearings on the quiz shows were rigged. That is the level to which our cynicism has progressed. At any rate, this film excels on many levels. To begin with, the cast and performances are just excellent. Turturro excels as the completely unlikeable walking encyclopedia, Herb Stempel. He so badly wants to be admired and successful, but he is just SO unlikeable he doesn't realize that he IS unlikeable. His long-suffering wife played by Johann Carlo sees Herb's every flaw yet loves him anyway. In this he is truly lucky, but he just doesn't see it. Besides his Jewish heritage, Stempel seems to have cluelessness in common with Robert Morrow's Richard Goodwin. Goodwin's character is center stage throughout this movie, and he is played as an exceedingly complex character. First in his class at Harvard, he has brains but lacks the worldliness to see from the beginning that corporate America's Goliath will never be taken down by his version of David and his sling shot of a subpoena. Long before Big Pharma got so big, the fix was already in.
In this sense, Goodwin is the personification of the wide-eyed idealist. He still believes if you just present the truth to the public the correct outcome is inevitable. Finally you have Ralph Fiennes as Charles Van Dorn, possibly the most tragic figure in all of this. He goes in to try out for one of NBC's quiz shows with the best of intentions, and ultimately trades his integrity for fame and fortune, although reluctantly at first. Van Dorn at first enjoys the attention and the money, but when Goodwin shows up at his door with a host of questions about the honesty of the quiz shows he seems to reawaken Van Dorn's conscience, and he slowly disintegrates into a pile of nerves who even goes out of his way to avoid the host of admirers he once welcomed. He seems relieved to indict himself before Congress and the nation, but pays a heavy price for his confession. Rounding out the cast is the excellent Paul Scofield as Mark Van Dorn, Charles' father. He is another wide-eyed idealist, and a tall shadow in which Charles has had to dwell until "21" comes along. The master stroke in this film is the cameo by Martin Scorsese as Martin Rittenhome, an executive with Geritol, the sponsor of "21". His short conversation with Richard Goodwin pretty much lays out the ugly truth of the situation - People do tune in to watch the money, and the same end could be accomplished by merely making the questions easier. He also mentions that the public has a short memory but corporations do not, and is thus confident that the NBC employees who rigged the show will never implicate anyone higher than themselves at any hearing. This fictional composite character is right at every turn, and the dishonored NBC employees even return to TV in the 60's with an even bigger hit - "The Joker's Wild" - something that would have never happened if they hadn't been willing to be the fall guys.