Privilege

Ambitious, flawed, and influential mockumentary helmed by provocative director Peter Watkins who made the superior War Game(65) and Punishemnt Park(70). Manfred Mann lead singer Paul Jones stars as Steven Shorter(SS),a pop star who is the creation of church and state. It seems to have been an influence on Wild in the Streets and The Apple as well as Tommy and A Clockwork Orange. Jones' gives an effectively introverted, naturalistic performance that was subject to unfairly harsh criticism when the film was released. The film is most compelling when Jones is on screen. The other characters are not interesting, and the narration is overly emphatic. Worthwhile, if flawed. Privilege has an interesting theme and premise that along with several arresting scenes make it worthwhile. Unfortunately, the recent DVD release does not present the film in widescreen.

this film came out in the late sixties and pretty much died on its release, i saw it and did not like it that much, nor did most of the critics. having just watched the very excellent DVD of it i must say i was wrong about the film. it stands up very well and what is most striking is how prophetic it was. the mixture of celebrity and politics predicted the way the two have now become so intertwined and banal that all life is now show business. made in 1967 it makes the point that there is no difference in the main political parties, so they become one totalitarian party, an elected dictatorship. it predicts virtually the rise of the reality TV phenomena we now have, the emptiness of politics and government policy, the nanny state, the surveillance culture that we now have to endure. paul jones gives a restrained and emotional performance. this is a film that will make you think about life and what it has become in a facile and superficial world, where appearance is important, where conformity and sheep mentality is becoming the norm. peter watkins the filmmaker with this film and his punishment park, another film which unbelievably is more relevant today than when it was made over 30 years ago, seems to have known where the world was going whilst the rest of us just partied on without a care. if only his films had reached a mass market, maybe things would have turned out a bit different, who knows

I was lucky enough to find this movie on Ebay, after hearing good things about it.Similar to other comments, I definitely can see how the main character Steven Shorter can be compared with some of today's pop stars.Originally I read that this film is a lot like the 'A Clockwork Orange', but with the exception of the whole conformity thing I didn't see it.It's a good movie in its own right, though. The story is a interesting concept on how you could use a superstar singer to exploit products and ideals.The guy from Manfred Mann(Paul Jones) plays the lead, and even though he's not that great, he's not that bad either.The way the religious folks were kind of betrayed like Nazis wouldn't play too well today, but it was effective.The stunning visuals during the musical performances and the music is very good, but forget about a finding a soundtrack.Patti Smith does a cool version of 'Set me Free'.Maybe one day they'll release this on DVD.

Peter Watkins-directed mockumentary about a pop star whose fame is engineered by the government. Paul Jones gives a wonderful performance as Steven Shorter, possibly the most famous man in Great Britain. We watch his daily exploits as he's followed by a documentary crew that also narrates. Although Shorter is clearly in the vein of a "mod" from the mid-1960's, the film has aged quite well. The original songs are great ("Privilege(Set Me Free)" was covered by Patti Smith in 1978) and the scenes of Shorter leading a fascist-like rally are still eerie (perhaps an influence on the film PINK FLOYD THE WALL?). Another great scene deals with Shorter being conscripted into writing a Catholic rock song, which anticipates how the organized Christianity of today tries to use rock as a way of converting people. Definitely worth watching. Hopefully it will finally get a proper home video release.

Paul Jones is rock idol Steven Shorter in "Privilege," a 1967 film from Britain that also stars Jean Shrimpton. Shorter (Jones) has the minds and hearts of the British public with his Beatle-like appearance and music, so the people behind him use him to promote any agenda they have, be it pushing the consumption of apples, conformity, religion, you name it. He goes along with their current manipulation of the public until he meets a beautiful young artist (Shrimpton) who encourages him to delve deeper into his own feelings and desires. The film has a great premise and lots of potential but for this viewer, it wasn't realized. It's very detached and meandering, and the acting is so "natural" as to be nonexistent. As Bette Davis once said, "Acting today is too natural. Real acting is larger than life." Well, what she was saying is that real acting has real energy - which the acting in "Privilege" lacks. There are some very good scenes, however, the ultimate being the outdoor rally which comes off as something from Hitler's Germany at the height of his political power. The rock versions of "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "Jerusalem" are great. Jean Shrimpton at one time was a world-famous supermodel and a spectacular beauty. However, her lush hair, perfect bones, enormous luminous eyes and leggy stature could not help her - she would have easily flunked out of the Copacabana School of Acting. Paul Jones is actually a very good actor, and gets to show it in a couple of scenes, but he was directed to have that empty vessel syndrome - where you're such a blank that an audience can infuse anything they want into you. It's a good, true phenomenon - Greta Garbo was one such empty vessel - but it doesn't come off here. For people who remember the British "mod" era, this will be of great interest.

Corporate ownership of a rock star...hmm..Singing the message his corporate masters want him to sing...hmmm...Using pop songs to manipulate the ideas and thoughts of youth in the mold that is 'desirable' by 'those in charge'...hmmm Naw, it'd never happen!! Turns out this film was pre Beatles Apple (empire) and it turned out the idea was somewhat 'prophetic' I liked the film..I remember seeing it several times..bought the book, own two copies of the soundtrack. (bought the Who's 'Who Sell Out' the same day...) Neither Paul Jones and Jean Shrimpton were particularly brilliant actors, but they were able to convey the feelings of the time. The late Michael Leanders music is still enjoyable and interesting..check out the film's version of 'Onward Christian Soldiers' Overall, I would like to see this film again!

Good movie about a singer whose popularity serves for societal manipulation. The rather timid rock star is part of an effort to control English youth by coercing them into accepting the government line, which is subtly expressed in his lyrics and behavior. The concept of using rock for social control is a bit dated, but try reworking it in the context of modern consumerism: Huge corporations and their musician-sponsors. Why, Madonna and Michael Jackson would never allow their artistic talents to be used to get people to buy Pepsi, right? The Beatles "Revolution" in a Nike ad is out of the question, true? Janis Joplin's estate wouldn't allow Mercedes-Benz to feature her tune about the car, correct? We aren't being manipulated by that old time rock and roll, are we? Not even to buy "Like A Rock" Chevy trucks? Paranoid enough? Then you'll enjoy "Privilege".

The count stands at at least 2 people!!! I DID see this film (25+?) years ago on UK TV, when I was quite young. I occasionally remember it and am now trying to track down a copy. I agree with all the previous reviewer's comments, the only element he doesn't mention is the "Stalinist" undertone in respect of the relationship of the power and the privilige. The young pop star receives "Privilege" in return for exercising power (unknowing manipulation) over the masses for his unseen (but knowing) masters. The finale of the film is an Orwellian vision where he has fallen from grace, his career is over, but since record of him cannot be erased so easily his publicised image is restricted to visual only, his voice is erased... I guess the film was originally created as a "pop" metaphor of Communist regimes, but my memory of it resonates with much of modern media, and public, pop-hysteria. Oh, I remember the music as good too, but I'm bracing myself for a shock if I hear it again... (I remember a time when Alice Cooper sounded heavy and shocking. Nowadays it feels very "middle of the road"!) Paul Jones still rocks, running his show on BBC Radio 2 on Blues (at time of writing).

Tremendous, thought-provoking film. Not as sinister as Big Brother in Orwell's '1984' but an impressive and lighter look at how certain segments of the establishment can influence society via a mixture of nationalism and religion. A quality cast with original music and WOW clothes design. A film that deserves to be called a 'classic'.

Both the strengths and the flaws of PRIVILEGE are easily spotted within the first five minutes of its running time . A voice over announces it's Britain in the near future and Stephen Shorter messianic rock god is thrown over a barrier , dragged into a cage and harassed by sadistic warders much to the disgust of his captivated female audience of all ages . The background music of discordant guitar feedback changes to one of a synth with a guitar rift and Stephen bursts into a song that will have you playing air guitar and tapping your toes . In short the music is by far the best thing about the movie So what's wrong with the rest of the miss en scene ? Peter Watkins insists on directing in the Italian Neo-realist style which while very popular amongst European film makers in the late 1940s and early 1950s - And not to mention amongst European film critics in the 1960s - is a style of film making that didn't catch on in mainstream cinema . It worked fine in Watkin's previous work like CULLODEN and THE WAR GAME but these were precursors to what we now call " docudramas " , the only time we see a natural home for the Italian neo-realist style . It should also be mentioned that the shots of weeping teenage girls gnashing their teeth and running their hands through their hair could only have come from the 1960s and isn't there something laughably ridiculous having women in their late middle age drooling over a music god ? Do the words " Monty " and " Python " and " Sketch " spring to mind ? As the story continues there's something of a lack of internal continuity to this scene . You see both the state and the church want to use the popularity and charisma of Shorter to control the population for their own end , in short to make popular music in general and Stephen Shorter in particular the new opiate of the masses . If that's the case then why have Shorter portray himself as the angry young man and rebel in the start of the film ? Wouldn't that give rebellious youth a few ideas that the state would prefer them not to have in the first place ? There are a few more ridiculous scenes in the movie with pride of place going to the monks recording Onward Christian Soldiers . You can't help thinking this movie influenced Palin , Cleese , Chapman and co to start up a comedy troupe These criticisms are noticeable but shouldn't be used as a weapon to attack the film as being a schlock movie or meaningless . Let's not forget if Bush and Blair want to be seen doing good in the world then all they have to do is call a press conference and have Bob Geldof and Bono talk about AIDS , starving babies and third world debt and the link between Nuremberg rallies and present day rock concerts is presented very well , it's just that you're never entirely convinced an Illuminati would never need to pull strings in order to bring about fascist regimes or fundamentalist theocracies because these type of societies come about via more obvious methods PRIVILEGE was a film that was supposed to make a star out of Paul Jones and put Watkins on the map as Britain's most important film director . Unfortunately due to the rather heavy handed story which suits the director's style it caused a lot of distributors in both Britain and the United States to either refuse to show it or confine it to very limited release which meant very few people saw it . It's also a film that very rarely crops up on network television either , to my knowledge Channel 4 last showed it 20 years ago which is a great pity because this deserves to be at least a cult classic whatever its flaws and for music fans who have bought Patti Smith's Easter album just wait till you hear Jones perform the original Set Me Free