Quiz Show did not tell the truth about key historical figures. Did this break the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness’? First, a quick summary of the movie:
Queens-born Herbie Stempel (John Turturro) becomes an unlikely hero after winning on America’s beloved game show, “Twenty One.” When the network decides to bring in a more telegenic contestant, the WASP-ish Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), Stempel takes aim at the show, announcing that the game is rigged. Congressional investigator Dick Goodwin (Rob Morrow) is brought in to examine the claim that winners were given the answers. Goodwin wrote the book on which this true story is based.
Quiz Show did not tell the truth about key historical figures. Did this break the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness’? What does it mean to bear false witness? Now, we cannot take this out of context, so lets see what bearing false witness means in the Bible, which is where this verse (Exodus 16:20) is found. What does it mean to bear false witness according to the Bible? To bear false witness in the Bible means to give an untrue testimony. It basically means to lie. If the movie Quiz Show did not tell the truth about key historical figures, would that count as bearing false witness? I would say that if it is not the truth, it is a lie. The question literally says ‘did not tell the truth’. That means that the movie lied about key historical figures. Now, some people might see this as not lying because it’s just a movie and it is not real. However, several movies lie about a lot of things in the real world. Sometimes it is important to the story, that they just changed it or made something up for the movie to make sense, but if it is not the truth, it is a lie. Some people call these lies harmless, the more common term I think is a white lie. But it does not matter if it is the smallest lie, or even if you twist the truth, they are still lies. Quiz Show did not tell the truth about historical key figures, so yes, I think this breaks the commandment ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness’. Quiz Show lied about key historical figures. Some people might say that it is fine, that people know the truth about them so the lie does not matter, but what about those that do not know the truth? Are they just going to go on with life thinking that this lie is the truth? Many people think that if it is in a movie, it is probably a lie, but it might be the truth, so if they do not know if it is a lie or the truth, they forget about it. But what of those people that believe that it is the truth? I do not know about them, but what I do know is that lies are wrong. Quiz Show lied about key historical figures, and that was wrong.