Series 7: The Contenders (2001)

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Written by Daniel Minahan

Directed by Daniel Minahan

Running Time: 100 minutes (approx)

Production Year: 2001

Rating: 18 Certificate

Filmed in Colour

This movie 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, this superb film unrolls in the frenetic style of network television, never pausing for reflection.

This 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, and are selected as 33-year-old Dawn Lagarto (Brooke Smith) & Jeffrey Norman (Glenn Fitzgerald), 57-year-old Connie Trabucco (Marylouise Burke), 18-year-old Lindsay Berns (Merritt Wever), 72-year-old Franklin James (Richard Venture) and finally 39-year-old Tony Reilly (Michael Kaycheck).

Each of the contenders are 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. But the director 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.

Cast

Brooke SmithDawn Lagarto
Mark WoodburyDairy Mart Clerk
Michael KaycheckTony Reilly
Marylouise BurkeConnie Trabucco
Richard VentureFranklin James
Donna HanoverSheila Berns
Merritt WeverLindsay Berns
Glenn FitzgeraldJeff Norman
Angelina PhillipsDoria Norman
Tom GilroyPat Dawn's Cameraman
Nada DespotovichMichelle Reilly
Stephen Michael RinaldiCraig
Alex YershovNathan
Danton StoneBob Berns
Joseph BarrettDoctor
Shawna MooreShawna a Nurse
Jennifer Van DyckLaura
Tanny McDonaldDawn's Mother
Caitlin BatemanColby
James LecesnePriest
Robin BordenDoria Lookalike
Lauren WardDoria Lookalike
Aydin BengisuJeff Lookalike
Josh MosbyJeff Lookalike
Babo HarrisonDawn Lookalike
Adena Shea LoomisUltra Sound Baby
Pamela WehnerLottery Spokesmodel
John VentimigliaDispatch Operator
Kirsten KrohnFemale Promo Voice
William GravesMale Promo Voice

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