peter watkins loves the mocumentary

[Eric P]

so far i've watched three of his movies, one of his short subjects and am now watching Gladiators, wherein the nation's leaders decide that the only way to solve their differences is to hold televised war games.

so it's basically rollerball and about how the people in power use the youth to do their bidding, while also being about the complacency of those in power towards the youths.  it's nothing new (think rollerball or even battle royale) and at times it does lose the faux documentary style (mostly on reaction shots), but once more the acting is good and writing is good.

and there's a lone french radical who looks like trent reznor's latest publicity photos.

so far this is the weakest of his films, the least original, but it's still worth watching.

Further updates as warranted.

[Eric P]

oh, and the other recurring theme, "war is horrible"

[Eric P]

the black american is a bit of a jerk

[Eric P]

and now i'm watching a conversation in swedish and french about the nature of changing a political system with violence versus the reward of working from within.

though it's all a lie and meant to trap the french man.

[Eric P]

this may be the weaker of his films which i've seen so far but it's still quite quite good.

there's one repeating narrative bit "it may shock you to know that X people in this room will die shortly, but the rest of the players will continue to play the game as hard as they can"