I saw it on the T-V, it must be true
November 11, 2008 10:45 PM Subscribe
He Saw it Coming. The media, particularly television, has been pacifying us since long before Stewert and Colbert were around to remind them it was part of their job to tell us the truth once in while. Peter Watkins directed and produced films with the basic theme: televisions are just televisions... dude.
Some tastes of his work:
La Commune
Punishment Park
The War Game pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4, pt5
Some tastes of his work:
La Commune
Punishment Park
The War Game pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4, pt5
This post was deleted for the following reason: great post but we saw it about two weeks ago. -- jessamyn
Fascinating stuff; thanks for the post. I just put 3 of his films in my Netflix queue.
I'd just watched the Frontline story about the rise of the master political operative Lee Atwater, Karl Rove's mentor, so Peter Watkins is hitting me at just the right moment. One thing that struck me from the Frontline story was, in the clips of news interviews and press conferences from the mid-late 80s, the network news journalists, Sam Donaldson, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings are the ones I recall, actually asked pointed questions, follow-up questions, argumentative questions. They weren't just throwing softballs and taking dictation. However weak and co-opted journalism in the US may have been all along, it's gotten much, much worse in the last decade.
posted by tula at 1:15 AM on November 12, 2008
I'd just watched the Frontline story about the rise of the master political operative Lee Atwater, Karl Rove's mentor, so Peter Watkins is hitting me at just the right moment. One thing that struck me from the Frontline story was, in the clips of news interviews and press conferences from the mid-late 80s, the network news journalists, Sam Donaldson, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings are the ones I recall, actually asked pointed questions, follow-up questions, argumentative questions. They weren't just throwing softballs and taking dictation. However weak and co-opted journalism in the US may have been all along, it's gotten much, much worse in the last decade.
posted by tula at 1:15 AM on November 12, 2008
Amazing stuff, great post. Thanks for the introduction!
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:03 AM on November 12, 2008
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:03 AM on November 12, 2008
Nice post but I'm afraid Mr. Watkins was on the blue just last week. I'm on a mobile so it's kind of a hassle to dig up the thread but it was the second result of my google search.
posted by GalaxieFiveHundred at 5:25 AM on November 12, 2008
posted by GalaxieFiveHundred at 5:25 AM on November 12, 2008
This sniffs of double, but it's a cool double. Let's call it a doppelganger!
posted by Pastabagel at 5:30 AM on November 12, 2008
posted by Pastabagel at 5:30 AM on November 12, 2008
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posted by zouhair at 12:35 AM on November 12, 2008