"Live!"
(2007)
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LIVE!
A film by Bill Guttentag
(Summary and Review by Joyce)
Summary:
The tenacious President of Programming, Kate (Eva Mendes) battles everyone from the President of the Network to the FCC in order to green light her latest project--a reality game show called "LIVE", in which contestants compete in a game of Russian Roulette. Each contestant will win 5 million dollars if they survive. The loser?s family gets nothing.
Kate?s ambition is to make her mark in the world, push the envelope and not be a nobody who has a three paragraph obituary in the end.
A documentary crew headed by Rex (David Krumholtz) follows her every move. When the President of the Network (Paul Michael Glaser) objects to the crew?s presence, they leave. Unbeknownst to him, the camera is left running and catches him when he admits to Kate, that he was sexually aroused when he found out that someone might die on the air. He gives her the go ahead to pursue her project--even though he secretly hopes it will be her undoing.
Having cleared one hurdle, she proceeds to manipulate everyone in her path. She gathers the advertisers and pulls at their heart strings by showing them a melodramatic vignette of one of the contestants. Then, she appeals to the vanity of the Network lawyer, Don (Andre Braugher) when she asks him if he wants to stand with the giants before him or end up an unknown. He, in response, battles the FCC and wins. Kate braves through the protest from public, claiming that there is no such thing as bad publicity. She finally convinces the CCO and CFO and the show has the green light.
Finally it?s show time. The host introduces the contestants, who are greeted with cheers and fanfare. The contestants are made to stand on a stage, which rotates like the cylinder of a gun. The actual gun used for the contest is toted around by a beautiful woman, on a red velvet pillow. Contestants are chosen by lottery-style power balls and after a short introductory film about each, they are asked to pick up the gun and step into the chamber.
Kate watches with a sense of dread and excitement. Her excitement takes reign when she hears that the ratings are rising. The atmosphere in the control room is celebratory.
Each time a contestant steps into the chamber, the fear in their eyes is evident and they waiver before pulling the trigger. The audience draws in and holds their breaths --when rewarded with the click of the gun instead of the sound of gunshot, they cheer and shout for their favorites. The contestants whoop and holler, having actually dodged the bullet.
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW. SKIP TO THE REVIEW IF YOU DON?T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.
Eventually luck runs out and one of the contestants is shot through the head. The audience gasps, the relatives in the audiences shriek in horror and the camera crew freezes--but the show must go on. The director in the booth calls on the camera crew to keep shooting. Rex, who was once the reluctant participant, shouts at the director to get a close up of the last survivor. The director also starts getting reaction shots of the audience and close ups of the contestant?s families. As the music cues up, the audience forgets their horror and cheers for the survivors. The last survivor is presented with a check for 5 million dollars.
Kate is horrified and Rex finds her in the bathroom throwing up. She says it?s all her fault; she put the gun in the victims? hand. Rex convinces her that the contestants took their fate into their own hands. He reminds her about the success of the show, but offers her the chance to back out. She declines, realizing that she did what she set out to do. She is now a big name, with a hit television series. Feeling confident once again, she starts to return to the control room and is descended upon by the media. Before she can respond to the deluge of questions several shots ring out.
Kate falls to the ground and Rex tries to revive her. Someone in the crowd tackles the shooter, but it?s too late. Kate has been shot dead.
Don, the network lawyer gives a statement about the shooting and assures the media (even though he?s not so sure himself) that the tragic shooting had nothing to do with the game show.
One year later, the game show is in full swing and new contestants are introduced. Kate got what she wanted, she pushed the envelope, became a household name--got a full page obituary in the NY Times.
*************************************
Review:
Director Bill Guttentag, creates and exciting, humorous and dark satire. It?s an intriguing look at the inner workings of reality television. While the documentary angle is not needed, it doesn?t take away from the enjoyment of the film.
The acting is first rate, especially by Eva Mendes whose aggressiveness mixed with vulnerability have you routing for her even though the idea for the game show is ludicrous. She has the weight of the entire film on her shoulders and carries it off with style.
David Krumholtz plays a likeable enough character although, since the documentary angle is played, we should have been able to glimpse a little more of what his character was all about.
It was wonderful to see Paul Michael Glaser, albeit too short, step onto the screen again. The glint in his eyes says more than the dialog ever could. It?s always a treat to see him in action. Although I did wonder whether the President of a Network had that little control over what happened at his own network.
Andre Braugher?s thoughtful portrayal as the lawyer who first fought against, then joined Kate in her fight to air the program was excellent.
The film is exciting, thought provoking, has a good twist at the end and leaves the audience to process the information and come to it?s own conclusions as to the morality of putting on such a show. Although one of the many true statistics in the film (that 67% of America favors public executions and 21% would pay to watch) makes you wonder what kind of world we are coming to.
Hopefully, the film will get a deal for major distribution. It?s well worth seeing.
Summary and review by Joyce and is the exclusive property of paulmichaelglaser.org and Joyce.
May 6, 2007
They are NOT to be copied and posted on other sites or used in any other fashion.
April 28th ..2007
Here is one press comment :"The painfully funny satire had the audience at Saturday night's world premiere laughing and gasping until the very end. "
~ Huffington Post
This film has completed production only. No distribution date at present.
Paul has three scenes in this film.
Paul Michael Glaser..as Network President
According to various sources, this film is a comedy (?)/drama take off on today's Reality TV shows where a television executive, Katy (Eva Mendes), produces a show called "Live!" in which show contestants play the game of Russian Roulette with a loaded gun!
Katy tries to work her way through the restrictions and challenges of the Federal Communications Commission, her network and network President (Paul) and the advertisers all the while a documentary filmmaker, Rex (David Krumholtz) captures the details of her daily life and all it's glory as well as getting involved in the creation of biographical snippets of the shows contestants.
*"LIVE" Premiers this month, April, 2007 in NY at the Tribeca Film Festival.
(Paul is NOT attending this event)
Here is The Mocumentary info. Also see his filmography page: What if everyday people played a game of Russian Roulette with a loaded gun on live television? Would you watch? A network executive (Eva Mendes) certainly hopes so as she puts her career on the line, producing such a reality show. In this dark satire, a documentary crew follows the behind-the-scenes struggle to air this controversial show.
Sat, Apr 28, 8:00pmClearview Chelsea West Theater 1 | $25
Sun, Apr 29, 10:30pmAMC 34th Street Theater 9 | $18
Tue, May 1, 11:00pmAMC Kips Bay Theater 11 | $18
Thu, May 3, 10:00pmAMC Village VII Theater 1 | $18
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