Overview
Herbert Stempel's transformation into an unexpected television personality unfolds as he secures victory on the cherished American game show, 'Twenty-One.' However, when the show introduces the highly skilled contestant Charles Van Doren to replace Stempel, it compels Stempel to let out his frustrations and call out the show as rigged. Lawyer Richard Goodwin steps in and attempts to uncover the orchestrated deception behind the scenes.
Whilst it takes some artistic liberties with the story (Herb didn’t lose on that question – and in fact pulled back to go head to head the following episode), the general story is as engaging and relevant today as it was when the scandal occurred, and when the film was made 4 decades later.
Redford directs well, and makes great use of the cast. Ralph Fiennes is engaging as Charles Van Doren, the professor who is brought in to kick Tuturro’s Herb Stempel out of the show, and no actor takes precedent through the story, each playin the simple role, and not pushing to steal scenes.
Nominated for best picture and director, as well as adapted screenplay and supporting actor, the film is an engaging watch, and tells a significant story about corporate power in the realm of entertainment. Even in recent year quiz shows are seeing corruption scandals, with the UK itself having high profile ones such as the phone-competition scandal, or the Ingram millionaire scandal (which we saw behind the scenes of in a recent TV drama, including seeing how they still try to engineer shows to go a certain way), and it is clear that the investigation into Twenty One and other gameshows of the 50s didn’t really change anything.