Chuck Barris as hitman in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is an offbeat and wonderfully weird film. The premise here is that slightly whacked and less than talented game show host and creator Chuck Barris was a hit man for the CIA in his spare time. Chuck says that he likes game shows because he has always been amazed at what people will do for a new refrigerator. The story is a bit silly, to say the least, so it is outright amazing when George Clooney and Julia Roberts, among others, walk onto the screen. Clooney directed this little gem, and I guess I should not have been surprised to see many of his friends show up in it. It is a good looking movie.

Sam Rockwell does a great job of playing Barris, swinging his arms and tilting his head and acting as if he is slightly stoned at all times. The story raises a lot of questions, but can’t be bothered to answer any of them. In the end we are left to decide for ourselves if Chuck Barris picked up pocket change in service of his country.

There are a lot of scenes on the set of the Gong Show, which is, honestly, all I know Chuck from. So that was fun. But my favorite bit of the film comes at the very end. The real life Chuck Barris is filmed in shadow and slightly out of focus, just like the story.

Chuck says-I came up with a new game-show idea recently. It’s called The Old Game. You got three old guys with loaded guns onstage. They look back at their lives, see who they were, what they accomplished, how close they came to realizing their dreams. The winner is the one who doesn’t blow his brains out. He gets a refrigerator.

I think they could get Regis to host it and it’d be a big hit.


Jon Herrera
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