LIVE!
US, 2007, 95 minutes, Colour.
Eva Mendes, Jay Hernandez, Andre Braugher, David Krumholz, Jeffery Dean Morgan, Paul Michael Glaser
Directed by.Bill Guttentag.
If you loathe 'reality TV' shows, then this is the film for you. On the other hand, if you love 'reality TV' shows, then you need to see this.
We are immediately introduced to the vigorously ambitious Katy (a strong Eva Mendes) who works for a television channel whose ratings are slipping. By chance, somebody jokingly remarks that the reality shows are getting so way out that the next thing could be Russian roulette on the small screen. It clicks as no other way out idea (and the film offers some jaw-dropping examples) for Katy and off she goes. She knows how to manipulate people, confronting the boss (Paul Michael Glaser), persuading the upright company lawyer (Andre Braugher) that he will find his place in legal history if he defends the freedom and rights to air this show. His specious speech to the TV controlling board is a stunning example of false logic delivered with sincerity and gravitas. She cajoles the sponsors into coughing up their millions for commercials, after making them weep at a sob story.
Then we realise that she is being filmed by a young director (David Krumholz) who is making a documentary on her (often leaving his camera running when he is told to turn it off).
What clinches the show is a series of auditions of talent who are willing to risk their lives for a shot (literal) at $5,000,000 to each survivor. The director makes some puff pieces to introduce each candidate. Each of these is well worth seeing as a parody of particular types of American pizzazz and/or sentimentality. The actors in these roles are very good indeed, as they are when the show finally goes into production. Jeffrey Dean Morgan wrings the heartstrings, with his wife and ill son, as the middle American desperately impoverished farmer. Jay Hernandez is the Latino, injured so that he cannot become a dancer but who loves his mother – and is gay. There is a surfer dude, a model who has had an epiphany about exploitation of the body and who has become a performance artist. There is the young girl who came to Hollywood to be a star but who had to go the hard way via strip clubs. And there is the intelligent black New Jersey man who wants to become a writer (and whose parents are horrified at his decision). This is a nice and amusing cross-section of ordinary Americans.
As an expose (exaggerated, we hope!) of life in a TV channel where morality becomes obsolete, where ratings and getting easy money (well, after the risk that the one bullet in the revolver is for you) are a 21st century of the media-hyped American dream, the film hits its targets effectively.
Needless to say, the show is finally presented with all the studio glitz and glamour it can muster, is suspenseful as we watch each candidate being presented and cheered by the equally amoral audience: then the firing of the gun.
How can the film end? Surprisingly, and in a very American way.
Documentary director Bill Guttentag has followed 15 Minutes and Series 7: the Contenders, two films on the morality of this kind of live television exploitation, with a film that is always interesting, often amusing and, ultimately, horrifying.
1.Audience reactions to reality shows? In favour, not?
2.The United States, the 21st century and reality shows? The world and their popularity? The film’s comment on the world interest, curiosity, prurience, live and the extremes?
3.Celebrities, television, telling their story, fifteen minutes of fame? Audience creating and believing these celebrities?
4.Television and ratings, competition? New ideas? Executives and concerns, sponsors and advertising? Programmers and creativity? Always wanting more?
5.Katie and her background, her ambitions? Her job, the boss and his dislike of her? Her working with her staff, the creative discussions? The collage of outlandish suggestions for programs? The exasperation of the staff, the passing comment on Russian Roulette, Katie’s reaction? Taking it on, running with it? The staff reaction – and then agreeing?
6.The boss, the discussions with Katie, his mixed motivations in agreeing with her, wanting her sacked? His being surprised later at the success?
7.Don, his character, ethical issues, good taste? The law? The discussions with Katie, her research, her persuading him about his place in history, prestige? His speech to the federation? The specious content, his absolute conviction? Issues of freedom, the Constitution? His later watching the program? Disbelief?
8.The sponsors, the discussions in the boardroom, Katie’s persuasiveness? Watching the profiles? The sobs? Their agreeing to sponsor the program?
9.Rex, his filming, off-screen comments, his cameraman? Leaving the camera on? The candid shots of Katie? Katie as a person? His relationship with her? The discussions with the photographer? His persuading her to take him on the plane to New York?
10.The auditions and the motivation? The selection? The American clichés and sentiment?
Jewel, her ambitions, arriving in Los Angeles, the Marilyn Monroe objectives, the failure to get jobs, the strip joints, her downwards career?
Brad, his studies, sport, surfing, extreme sports, hedonism, his friends?
Pablo, gay, Latino, wanting to be a dancer, his injury, his hard work, his mother, his friends?
Abalone, as a model, the exploitation, her changing to performance art, her various causes, the details of her performances?
Rick, the family man, the illness of his child, his wife, the crops, the farm and the expenses?
Byron, ambitious, his studies, at school, African American, his accomplished parents, wanting to write his novel? His parents and their being interviewed and objecting?
11.The trip to New York, Rex filming Katie on the plane, her expectations, the discussions with the executives, her thinking that she had failed, return home, the news of success, everybody excited? Katie and her interviews on the TV program, the equivalent of Entertainment Tonight?
12.The show itself, the cameras, the sets, the glitz, the guns on cushions, the stands for the individual candidates, the tunnel for the shooting? The host and his patter? The music? The commercial breaks? The audience, live, Pablo’s mother, Rick’s wife? Katie and her control of the cameras? Her assistant, the phone calls, the news of the increasing ratings?
13.The host, the candidates, the presentation of the profiles, the guns, going into the barrel, living? Receiving their cheques?
14.Abalone, her taking the gun, her performance art, turning the gun on the host, his fear? Her bow to applause?
15.Brad, his death? Rick, his wife and the relief?
16.The aftermath, Katie and her exuberance, her questions to herself, about the deaths? Her suddenly being shot? A particularly American culmination?
17.The consequences, no connection between the shooter and the program? A year later, Rex and his voice-over and confessing that he had become part of the program? Jewel as the host? Live as an annual event? The story as farfetched, but …?
