Directed by Robert Redford. Written by Paul Attanasio, adapted from Richard N. Goodwin's book "Remembering America : A Voice From the Sixties".

Charles Van Doren

• I would give almost anything I have to reverse the course of my life in the last year. The past doesn't change for anyone, but at least I can learn from the past. I have learned a lot about life. I have learned a lot about myself and about the responsibilities any man has to his fellow men. I have learned a lot about good and evil — they are not always what they appear to be.

  I was involved, deeply involved, in a deception. I have deceived my friends, and I had millions of them. I lied to the American people. I lied about what I knew and then I lied about what I did not know. In a sense, I was like a child who refuses to admit a fact in the hope that it would go away. Of course it did not go away. I was scared, scared to death. I had no solid position, no basis to stand on for myself. There was one way out, and that was simply to tell the truth.

  It may sound trite to you, but I have found myself again after a number of years. I've been acting a role, maybe all my life, of thinking I've done more, accomplished more, produced more than I have. I've had all the breaks. I have stood on the shoulders of life and I have never got down into the dirt to build, to erect a foundation of my own. I have flown too high on borrowed wings. Everything came too easy. That is why I am here today.

  • Compare with the real statement made by Charles Van Doren.

Herb Stempel

• Charles Van Doren — he wouldn't know the answer to a doorbell if you didn't give it to him.

• This week on Twenty-One, watch Herb Stempel be fed to the Columbia lions. Watch Charles Van Doren eat his first kosher meal on Twenty-One.

• [To a reporter outside the Congressional hearing room] You know what the problem with you bums is? You never leave a guy alone unless you're leaving him alone.

Dick Goodwin

• I remember five-six years ago my uncle Harold told my aunt about this affair he had. It was a sort of mildly upsetting event in my family... The affair was over, something like eight years. So I remember asking him, "Why did you tell her? You got away with it." And I'll never forget what he said. It was the getting away with it part that he couldn't live with.

Others

• Mark Van Doren: For $64,000, I hope they ask you the meaning of life.

• Martin Rittenhome: You see, the audience didn't tune in to watch some amazing display of intellectual ability. They just wanted to watch the money.

• Rep. Derounian: Mr Van Doren, I'm also from New York, a different part of New York. I'm happy that you made the statement, but I cannot agree with most of my colleagues. You see, I don't think an adult of your intelligence ought to be commended for simply, at long last, telling the truth.

Dialogue

Dick Goodwin: He told me this whole story about when a Jew is on the show, he always loses to a Gentile, and then the Gentile wins more money. I mean, who could dream up a scheme like that? [laughs]

Dan Enright: [laughs] A symptom of his Van Doren fixation!

Dick Goodwin: The thing of it is, I looked it up: it's true.

Dick Goodwin: I have Enright cold — and sir, that means I have you.

Robert Kintner: Really?

Dick Goodwin: Really.

Robert Kintner: Then why are you the one that's sweating?

Dick Goodwin: Don't treat me like I'm a member of your goddamn fan club. Are you telling me everybody got the answers but you?

Charles Van Doren: You're so persistent, Dick. You know, I really envy you that.

Dick Goodwin: Was it just the money, Charlie?

Charles Van Doren: You'll forgive me, but anyone who thinks money is ever just money couldn't have much of it.

Dick Goodwin: Charlie, you want to insult me, fine; but you can't envy me at the same time.

Charles Van Doren: Jesus, Dick, if someone offered you all this money to be on some rigged quiz show, instant fame, the works, would you do it?

Dick Goodwin: No. 'Course not.

Charles Van Doren: No? Throw the whole thing in, the cover of Time, Dave Garroway, $50,000 a year to read poetry on television — would you do it?

Dick Goodwin: No.

Charles Van Doren: And I would?

Cast

• Ralph Fiennes - Charles Van Doren
• John Turturro - Herbert Stempel
• Rob Morrow - Dick Goodwin
• Paul Scofield - Mark Van Doren
• David Paymer - Dan Enright
• Hank Azaria - Albert Freedman
• Allan Rich - Robert Kintner
• Martin Scorsese - Martin Rittenhome
• Johann Carlo - Toby Stempel
• Mira Sorvino - Sandra Goodwin