QUIZ SHOW

FOUR STARS - Revealing

When a person sells their integrity, they seldom realize its true value until it is gone. This lesson is painfully demonstrated in Paul Attanasio’s “Quiz Show.” Nominated for Best Picture, “Quiz Show” is the true story of the 1950’s scandal of NBC’s quiz show “21.”

Demonstrating the central spiritual truth that our integrity and self-respect is of more value than anything this world could give, this film supports the Biblical truth that it does a person no good to gain the whole world and yet lose their own soul. Yet the temptation to do so is strong.

In the life of Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), it came in the form of easy wealth and fame by participating in a rigged quiz show. The child of a Nobel prize- winning author, Van Doren was struggling with his own identity and reputation. In an attempt to make a name for himself, he decides to try demonstrating his knowledge on one of the first television game shows.

He doesn’t realize it is rigged.

At first he is strong enough to withstand the temptation. But maneuvered by the TV executives, and seduced by his own inner needs, he becomes a part of the dishonesty.

Screenwriter Paul Attanasio’s subtle development of the plot is spiritually insightful and universally accurate. Every person experiences temptation when their own unmet needs come into contact with unscrupulous people.

Due perhaps to the fact that Van Doren did not have the support of a religious community, nor of any apparent internal faith, he quickly falls to the temptation. Once fallen, one lie leads to another and another and soon Van Doren is drowning in a sea of deceit. This, too, is the experience of every person. Once we fall over the edge, the slippery slope takes us further and further down into a spiritually toxic mire.

Playing Van Doren in a genuinely winsome manner, Ralph Fiennes helps us identify with the pleasure of Van Doren’s fame and the joy of his wealth, and ultimately with the embroiling of his guilt. When investigated by a lawyer from the senate regulatory committee, Van Doren soon begins to struggle with his own self-respect. Truly a superior intellect with a promising professorship, though loved by his family, he now finds himself entangled in a mire: the stench of which he can no longer stand and the depth of which keeps him from finding solid ground. With a genuine concern for Van Doren, the lawyer tells him about the experience of his uncle. Like a parable Jesus would tell, he explains how his uncle admitted that he was in an adulterous affair. When it was discovered that he had gotten by with it for over eight years, he was asked why he confessed.

The uncle responded that the hardest part was having to live with the “getting away with it.”

This truth, that the price we pay when we sell our integrity is a payment of increasingly disturbing guilt, is a valuable message to every person.

Though he tries to rationalize his behavior, Van Doren discovers that in the final analysis he is not able to do so. In a very powerful moment of honesty, Van Doren confesses his lie before the senate committee. Explaining that he would give everything he has to relive the events of the past year of his life, he must nevertheless live with what he has done. His confession costs him his professorship. But his confession gained him back his self-respect.

That is usually the experience of the restoration of a person’s life. The world does not forgive. But the spiritual growth achieved by regaining our integrity is worth it. Though obviously a case study in ethics with clearly identified consequences, this is not a moralistic film. It neither teaches a specific religious view, nor does it illustrate a community of faith and the support it could have been.

This film simply describes what happened in a man’s life who chose to sell his integrity. He did it without premeditation. He simply fell into the clutches of an abusive industry and unscrupulous people. We cannot help but wonder how much different Charlie Van Doren’s life would have been had he had the strength of a personal religious life and the support of a community of faith.