Quiz Show
9 February 2008 in Blog | Comments enabled

It’s Saturday morning. I woke up around 5:30am and just couldn’t go back to sleep. This is partly because I had fallen asleep last night while watching the USA show Psych. So I was out by 11pm last night. Pretty early for a Friday night.

I had recently borrowed the movie Quiz Show from my brother’s elaborate DVD collection. (I must admit, my collection is lacking in the way of dramas.) I figured I’d put Quiz Show on and fall back to sleep while watching it. I have seen Quiz Show several times over the last 14 years - it’s one of those movies I can watch every time it is on TV. There is something just gripping about it.

While watching the film this morning, I didn’t fall asleep. On the contrary, I was just amazed by the emotion I felt. The guilt and shame that Van Doren feels practically leaps off the screen. My favorite theme in the movie is the relationship he has with his father. This is no better realized than in a certain scene where the two Van Dorens eat chocolate cake together.

The scene starts at about an hour and 15 minutes into the movie. Charlie has been cheating on the show for several months and it is killing him. Though nothing is said at all about his guilt, you can read it on his face. He so wants to confess all to his dad but at the same time he doesn’t want to disappoint him. There is a certain camera move - a dolly forward into a close-up on Charlie - it’s the moment where he almost tells his father everything - but he doesn’t. It’s that perfect union of great acting, great writing (that understands that good writing doesn’t always mean the presence of dialogue), and great direction. The only word spoken is “Dad.”

And then at the end of the scene Charlie comments about his desire to go back to the simplicity of coming home from school and eating chocolate cake and how nothing else will make him that happy. He is lamenting the innocence he has lost. His father then tells him he won’t feel that happy until he has a son of his own. The subtext is incredible. They are talking about the issue at hand without talking about the issue at hand. Brilliant. And of course this comment by his father is played completely oblivious to what Charlie is going through. His father is just expressing his own love for Charlie. But this adds to the discomfort that Charlie feels.

Go back and watch Quiz Show again. It’s not flashy but it is a solid movie that makes me feel something. It makes me examine my own life and reminds me what the price of compromise can be. And because of that, Quiz Show has made me a better person.

That’s the power of filmmaking. And that’s why I’m a filmmaker.