Privilege

Britain in the near future. Steven Shorter is the country's biggest pop star. His stage act is always the same: he is put in a cage, beaten, and the audience pities him. The act has a purpose; the government gathers the anger of the young onto one person and renders it harmless. Everything he does is planned: what he says, whom he endorses, which product he promotes. Then the church steps in and asks him to turn the young toward religion. At a certain point Steven decides to speak. Peter Watkins directs. Paul Jones, then really the singer of a pop group, plays Steven, and the model Jean Shrimpton plays the woman beside him. The film is shot as a mock documentary: narration, interviews and news footage. Watkins had used the method in his earlier film about nuclear war, which had not been broadcast in Britain. The argument is open: the entertainment industry, the church and the state can work toward the same end, and opposition can be turned into a product. It attracted little interest on release and its distribution was limited; it became a cult film in later years and was held to be influential in music circles. Visually it uses the British pop culture of the period directly; the crowd scenes resemble real concert footage. Who it is for: anyone interested in political science fiction and British culture of the sixties. Who it is not for: the thesis is too plain, the acting is weak, and the narrative proceeds like a statement.