It should come as no surprise that Robert Redford felt compelled to direct "Quiz Show," a story about the television quiz show scandals of the late 1950s. After all, there are parallel themes in many of his movies - duplicitous motives, Faustian temptations, loss of innocence . . . .
But there's another reason. Redford received a personal reality check when he was a struggling actor in New York City during the '50s and actually appeared on a quiz program.The show was "Play Your Hunch," with Merv Griffin as host. And Redford auditioned because he needed the $75 the program promised, since he and his pregnant wife were living on $55 a week.
Instead of being a contestant, however, he became a subject and was told to pretend he was something other than a New York actor. And when it was over, Redford received a fishing rod worth $75 instead of the cash he'd been promised.
Redford has described the experience as "humiliating," helping him to realize just how phony television could be. And yet, when he saw the drama of "Twenty-One" played out, as Charles Van Doren won thousands of dollars week after week, Redford says he was sucked into the drama with the rest of America. It occurred to him that Van Doren appeared to be "acting" on the show but not that he was cheating.
Redford's "Quiz Show" is about the corruption at NBC behind the prime-time game show "Twenty-One," and how an investigation eventually revealed that the program was rigged, that Van Doren, like contestants before him, had been coached in advance with the correct answers.
Considering what came later - from Vietnam to Watergate to Iran-Contra to any number of modern-day scandals - a rigged quiz show may seem like a fairly tame subject. But this was the beginning of cynicism in America after World War II. "Until then, we still trusted what we saw on TV," Redford has said.
These days, of course, viewers tend to take for granted that much of what they see on television - from sensationalistic talk shows to tabloid "news" programs - is, at best, exaggerated, or, at worst, completely made up.
After "A River Runs Through It," Redford wanted to direct a movie with an urban feel, one that would allow him to move the camera more.
When he found "Quiz Show," he took it to Walt Disney Productions, a studio he had never worked for and one with a reputation for meddling in movie projects.
Redford was pleasantly surprised, however, as executives left him alone and let him make the movie his way.
In populating his film, Redford made some interesting casting choices, at least one of which turned out to be quite fortuitous. Ralph Fiennes was given the role of the charismatic Charles Van Doren long before anyone had seen "Schindler's List," for which Fiennes was nominated as best supporting actor for his chilling portrayal of a Nazi commandant.
And Redford has admitted that if "Quiz Show" had been made 15 years ago, he probably would have played Van Doren himself.
In addition, Redford cast fellow directors Martin Scorsese and Barry Levinson as, respectively, the Geritol representative on "Twenty-One" and "Today" show host Dave Garroway. (Ethan Hawke, Timothy Busfield and Griffin Dunne can also be spotted in very brief cameos.)
Redford cast Scorsese because "he has his own personal style and delivery, so I found it interesting to have him play a tough character gently. And given his delivery style, in which he talks real fast, I thought it would make the character extremely menacing."
When he approached Levinson (who directed Redford in "The Natural"), Redford just asked, "Do you want to have some fun?" What he didn't tell Levinson was that he would be playing opposite a chimp, since the real Garroway had a famous simian sidekick named J. Fred Muggs in the early days of the "Today" show. "He didn't know I was going to throw a monkey at him."
Meanwhile, Redford's career remains in high gear. He will next star in a Rob Reiner comedy about a single U.S. president who is looking for love. "The American President" goes into production next month and will co-star Emma Thompson.
Redford will then appear in "Up Close and Personal," about NBC anchorwoman Jessica Savitch, which he hopes to follow with another directing effort, "The Education of Little Tree," from a book "about a half-breed boy in the South in the 1930s," which Redford describes as "a wonderful story."
Redford has said he likes taking risks. "I've missed a lot of times, but when it pays off, there's nothing like it. It's important to be constantly pushing the envelope on your own boundaries."
And pointing the finger at television from inside the show business industry is certainly risky these days.
A scene late in "Quiz Show" has a character saying, "I thought we were going to get television. The truth is, television is going to get us."
In retrospect that may seem like an easy conclusion but it's apparent that Redford came to a realization of that truth before it happened.