[lbo-talk] Privilege

B. docile_body at yahoo.com
Sat Jun 28 19:42:01 PDT 2008


It's really ironic that Watkins presents "Christian rock" (in _Privilege_) as this completely outlandish, farcical, yet sinister thing -- in the 1960s!! -- and yet today we have, well, Christian rock -- and even "punk" bands! Watkins was just imagining how rock 'n roll and the like could be used to sway mass, beatlemania-like hysteria towards fascist causes.

Also, another thing about Watkins, the director of _Privilege_, and punk: He also directed the frightening, black and white anti-nuclear war "documentary" _The War Game_ in 1965 and won an Academy Award for that. I am almost 100% certain that that 30 minute (or so) movie inspired a lot of the bands like Discharge and Crass and Conflict that helped reinvigorate the CND movement in the early 80s in the UK -- in fact Discharge might have made explicit reference to Peter Watkins's _The War Game_, IIRC. A whole subgenre of hardcore still seems basically obsessed with the kind of imagery and themes Watkins goes into in that film. It'd be ironic if Watkins hated punk given that one of his movies was sort of an important influence on a big part of it (or so I would argue).

And _Threads_ being made in the early 80s in the UK didn't hurt, either. Too bad we had the more awful _The Day After_ on this side of the Atlantic, although that also scared the shit out of me when I was little.

(Clip from The War Game, 1965: http://youtube.com/watch?v=v9v-tI7xQFo )

-B.

Joseph Catron wrote:

"I have a soft spot for DC Talk, myself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2zSNOWpI9s Jars of Clay has its moments, as well. (By way of explanation, I'm the only college graduate of my generation in my extended family who didn't go to Liberty University.)"



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