Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

didkus I will start by saying that I loved this movie. I am surprised to see so many reviews about this movie being about reality TV or look at it like it is supposed to be realistic. To me using this plot with the reality show is simply to be able to tell a much more meaningful story about life and death and the power of empathy.Warning: heavy SPOILERS ahead!***To me there were two main points in 'The Show':1) First, that it is not ideas that change people, it is empathy, real people. We see the story of a confused man who could not overcome the meaningless deaths he witnessed in the beginning of the movie. However, rather than trying to deal with it, understand how it affected him, he decides to teach the world a lesson, to change the world.So he goes ahead with this 'reality show' where people kill themselves in front of camera as he wants to teach people the value of life and death, while he doesn't much understand it himself. He does so quite narrow mindedly, without being able to give people something truly meaningful, counting on that people would simply start appreciating life by seeing others die. Throughout the movie we see that his message does not reach people - they either watch the show for entertainment, routing for people to die, or they hate it and want it down. And they do not understand it because he does not - the show is based on his need to understand death rather than on empathy and knowledge.2) The second idea I see is that it is life and love which create meaning and which are capable of changing people, not death, as the main character believes. We are introduced to this idea through the story of two secondary characters: the sister of the main character and a participant in the show whom we get to know throughout the movie.The sister ends up killing herself in the show which deeply affects the main character. His sister was meaningful to him when she was alive, she was his last family. He needed her to stay alive because he loved her. Her death is supposed to make him understand that he should have looked for meaning in life, rather than in death.The last participant in this show was a broken man who could not support his family. We are shown they have a pretty good relationship, although not perfect. He wants so much for them to have money that he is willing to die. However, in the last moment he realizes that he loves them too much, and is much more valuable to them alive, therefore does not go with his plan. Until this point the audience was shouting for people to off themselves, and this was the first time in the movie we actually see them routing for a participant to stay alive, supporting life rather than death. Which was, in the end, the idea of the host.***As a conclusion, I think this movie shows us that empathy, strength, and life are what really touches people and makes them route for life, not ideas and not death. The main character stopped his madness when he felt empathy for the first time in a while, and the audience changed when they felt empathy for the man who is willing to live and love.

dan_emma Maybe I've watched this on the wrong day. Or possibly the right day. I have the closing credits still on, it's that raw. Just 10 hours ago I contemplated suicide. Not for the first time, but I had reasons. Strong reasons.I didn't go through with it because of my family. Because of my future. But I've come home low, and obviously didn't tell my wife how close I came. So watching this... quite accidentally, actually. I didn't twig what it was about and how ironic it was until I was some way in.It's helped. Helped me see that as down as you can get, it's such a final solution. I've always thought I've not gone through with it because the way I'd prefer to do it with a gun. Being English, I can't just walk into a store and buy one. I don't even know how to get one illegally - I guess I'm one of the good guys.So as someone suicidal, this film totally resonates. Would I go on it? Quite possibly, yes. Not for the money, we're not in trouble. But because it legitimises the act. It makes it less personal, as I'm sure you'd feel a purpose to it. And suicide is about losing your purpose.I know I'm not at that stage. Hopefully, I never will be. But this film, whilst I wouldn't say "it's saved my life" it's a help. Today of all days.Thank you to all involved, if any of you ever read this.

lavatch In the behind-the-scenes segment of the DVD version of "The Show," the director Giancarlo Esposito described this disturbing film as "an unflinching look at reality television." One of the performers described it as "a critique of pop culture." But the film artists never seemed to grasp how the unpleasant and depressing subject matter would be and that the end result is a complete turn-off to audiences.The conceit of the film is that of an outrageous reality television program called "This is Your Death," which features contestants who die violent deaths through suicide on live broadcasts. In what the film's director called "a morality tale," the film sought to raise consciousness about today's tawdry television programs. But however one approaches this film, it is a ghoulish string of lurid deaths that have no redeeming or entertainment value.In 1976, the Academy-award-winning film "Network" offered a satirical look at the crass commercialism of television. A news anchor has a mental breakdown on live television, and the network decides to keep him on the air to boost the ratings. It was the humor that made "Network" a thoughtful critique of the nasty business of the media. By contrast, in "The Show," there was no levity to counter the grisly death scenes.Famke Janssen played the role of one of the producers of "This is Your Death." In the bonus track of the DVD, Janssen asserted the lead producer of the show "doesn't have a choice" but to go ahead with the unthinkable television show that destroys people's lives. A major point apparently lost on the film artists was that the producers, the host, the studio audience, and the viewers at home all had a choice whether or not to be complicit in a barbaric form of popular entertainment.Early in the film, one character described in Yiddish the nature of the exploitative program "This is Your Death" as a "schmatta" business. Schmatta means "rag" or "of poor quality." The term was a perfect expression for everyone involved in "The Show" who apparently felt that the idea of televised suicides is a viable idea for a film.

djmathers Please. Just do yourself a favor and pretend you never came across this movie. This was unbearable. The Storyline. The Acting. All of it - just ridiculous. The editing is terrible. Plot told so poorly you cant help but feel like you've missed a few scenes - it just doesn't tell a coherent story. The idea of people committing suicide live on TV to inspire people to live their best lives.. what?!! Laughable. Even the actors with somewhat reputable careers came across as crappy actors. Just terrible. I got angrier and angrier as the movie went on. Definitely in my top 3 for worst movies ever conceived, filmed and released to the public. A stain on our human history of filming. AVOID. AVOID. AVOID!!!!