Series 7: The Contenders (2001)

Synopsis: SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS consists of six episodes of a fictional television game show called The Contenders. On the show, non-actors are given handguns, quickly explained the very basic rules (kill the other contestants) and told to "play," with a goal of winning by staying alive.... SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS consists of six episodes of a fictional television game show called The Contenders. On the show, non-actors are given handguns, quickly explained the very basic rules (kill the other contestants) and told to "play," with a goal of winning by staying alive. Ultraviolent and psychologically disturbing, the film unrolls in the frenetic style of network television, never pausing for reflection. Written and directed by Daniel Minahan (cowriter of the screenplay for 1996's I SHOT ANDY WARHOL), SERIES 7 makes a timely comment on the rising popularity of actual television reality games shows. It's the ultimate game show. The contestants are chosen in a random drawing, handed a weapon, and instructed to watch their backs. Then, the entertainment begins. The prescient SERIES 7 skewers American popular culture with wit and style. Conceived long before the phenomenal success of the television program, SURVIVOR, and the subsequent deluge of "unscripted entertainment," the film takes the idea a step further. The manipulation of lives in SERIES 7 is in bold face. The film is shot on digital video in a hand held, breakneck style, with a hysterically solicitous voice over narration and bold, jarring graphics pumping up the drama of every frame. Using unknown actors, the audience accepts the characters as ordinary citizens. These actors generate tremendous sympathy, even as they commit desperate and brutal acts. Brooke Smith is particularly engaging as Dawn, the pregnant reigning champion. But Minahan reminds his audience again and again that all of the images they're seeing have been filtered, and even what seems to be the direct presentation of an actual event, cannot, in the end, be trusted. [More]