CITIZEN VERDICT

US, 2003, 97 minutes, Colour.
Armand Assante, Jerry Springer, Roy Scheider.
Directed by Philippe Martinez.

This film has a huge problem to confront before it starts:

• How do you make a reasonable film about sensationalism without succumbing to what you are attacking?
• Do you make a subdued documentary?
• Do you take the risk of glamourising the target?
• Or, do you indulge in doing a bit of sensationalising yourself. Citizen Verdict tends towards the last.

While Armand Assante is the star, the co-star is, of all people, Jerry Springer, the speech-writer, Mayor of Cincinatti, who has become king of the daytime talk shows with his no holds barred technique and the seemingly outrageous topics that he encourages on his show. This is sensational enough. Plus, he plays a television producer who is the end in sensationalist programming, who is ruthless, plays politics, is cutthroat in whom he employs and fires and whose personal life is couching-cast oriented. One thinks he must have a great deal of front to take on this role.

Reality shows have become the staple of network programming with the success of shows like Big Brother and Survivor and the myriad imitations. Already in Series 7 - The Contenders, we had a film that portrayed a reality show where the winner had to kill off every competitor. Death is the ingredient for Citizen Verdict and, given the US propensity for talk shows, the plot seems not altogether impossible.

The idea is to have a trial, lasting three hours, on television with a judge, a prosecutor and a defence lawyer (all on the payroll) who will try an actual criminal on death row. The verdict is the Citizen Verdict where people phone in their judgments and the accused is found guilty or not guilty according to the popular poll. Already polls dominate opinion around the world and here is one, sanctioned by the Florida government (with Roy Scheider as the governor and backer of the TV show for ratings, profit and votes) on a matter of life and death.

The idea is very interesting given television trends. The screenplay shows the tactics and techniques of the competing lawyers and the behind the scenes machinations with the truth for more sensational television. The climax of an execution on TV and the subsequent wheeler-dealing for control of the show leave a nasty taste in the mouth - which is what the film-makers were trying to do.