A review about corporate power and justice

Rating: 8/10 (2 September 2009)

Scandals are always loved by people who are not involved, especially when it is a wide-range one. Intrigue to win, losers, winners, pursuit of justice... These are all common things in life. They also happened as a scandal years ago.We will talk about such a thing. The movie, Quiz Show, would be an example of great productions, indeed it is a "must-see". Being based on a true story, Quiz Show may be more interesting than similar examples. It shows us '50s popular culture, how TV affects people and their lifestyles. It also shows us how things work on TV society. You may be able to notice every single detail, which this movie touches on, at a time. Or the more you watch it you can find out more about it. It is a very enjoyable movie I think. I do not know why, maybe it is because of the familiar actors who did great jobs on their performances. Ralph Fiennes, you may recall from Schindler's List and Red Dragon, and John Turturro, who you may know from the new Transformers series, did great jobs playing their characters. Giving the feeling of a person in these characters' situations is done perfectly by all actors. As you watch, you will see about it; but we are not going to talk about scenes and things which happened in the film.
Rather than starting to talk about my ideas, we should analyze '50s American culture, daily life and other common things about people's life first. After the end of World War II, people in the USA started to return to their normal, stress free life. There was no war anymore. According to historical resources, consumerism had gained speed. People started to buy themselves new dwellings, designed for single families. Again according to resources, The U.S. Dept. of Commerce and The Bureau of the Census, about 3,288,000 out of 151,684,000 people were unemployed and average salary was $2,992. Then, entertainment gained importance. Television was the greatest entertainment in that era, as it is now. TV networks of that era - ABC (American Broadcasting Company), CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), and NBC (National Broadcasting Company) - were in a race to lead the competition. Every single thing could be done under those circumstances.
This movie shows us that people were watching TV and taking it too seriously. TV was the main relaxation of people, it was really a great thing to them. In the film, you can hear Herbert Stempel saying, "That box is the biggest thing since Gutenberg invented the printing press, and I'm the biggest thing on it." After that point, owning a network company, being producer of a well known TV show would make these persons important or make them feel important, act like untouchable so they would proceed as however they want. A quote, said by Albert Freedman, who is one of the shows producers, and you can hear almost at the end of film, shows us that fact: "It's not like we're hardened criminals here. We're in show business." From that opinion, I would also had said that you do whatever you want in a TV show. Then you can say, " What the ? It's show business! What an audience wants, an audience gets. It was what they wanted! " Well, that might work... People trust justice, but sometimes it would not work as it was seen from outside. The thing is money. It was the main deal, it is and it will be. With great amounts of money, justice can be manipulated. If you have watched the show, you must have seen that the judge, who leads the hearing of fraud assertions about Twenty-One, cooperates with Dan Enright, the producer which is planing and applying the frauds. Good thing is, there are always honest people that show up on the right time, like Dick Goodwin.
Great jobs always bring people great money. With more money, you can extend your business and make more money. This chain contiunes if you take advantages wisely. Great money would give you the power to open every single door. In movie, you can hear Dan Enright(E) and Herbert Stempel(S) speak: "S:Don't do this to me, it's humiliating. E: For seventy grand, Herb, you can afford to be humiliated" That shows us the situation and manipulation power of money. At least, even an intelligent person, like a university lecturer, can be dragged into traps like this. As a result, unless big corporates are loyal to ethical values, happenings of things like these are more than possible. As Ben, uncle of Peter Parker, said in Spider Man, "With great power comes great responsibility."