Privilège

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.

Privilege was Peter Watkins' feature length debut. Using the faux documentary style, Watkins' follows a year in the life of a pop star. Stephen Shorter, Britian's most beloved pop icon. Shorter's handlers pimp him out to the highest bidder. What's so scary about this movie is how it's still relevant, even in today's society. One of my favorite scenes in this movie is when the Church of England uses Shorter's services to try and lure more converts. Utilizing a set that's eerily reminded me of a large Nazi youth rally (crosses replacing swastikas) The crowd is led by a young charismatic priest (who speeches commands an audience like Hitler)he leads the audience chanting "We will conform".

Critics called this movie heavy handed and others called it paranoid. I say it's excellent and Mr. Watkins did a fantastic job directing this film. It's too bad this movie's virtually impossible to find. Oh well, if you ever happen to come across it don't even stop and pause. Watch it!

Highly recommended.

Factoid: A movie and audio clip from this movie can be found on the Big Audio Dynamite song and video "Just Play The Music"

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).

A film society at my school showed this movie for free in a lecture hall last night. Though nothing beats a free movie, the guy running the whole thing introduced it as one that had been totally panned by critics, never released on video, etc., which didn't make it sound very promising. They also showed the short film "Lonely Boy" just before "Privilege" (it's funny to hear Paul Anka's manager saying how no one will be as famous as Paul Anka ever again, knowing that only two short years later The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan). The film society also said that the director of "Privilege" watched "Lonely Boy" repeatedly, to get a feel for the mass hysteria and hero worship of teen idols.

"Privilege" is about pop star Steven Shorter, who has the teen population of Britain in the palm of his hand. Behind Steve, however, are the corporations and investors using him to control teens, which is pretty scary to think about, considering the same is very nearly true today. They decide everything for him: his appearance, what products he'll endorse, the songs he sings; and when he tries to break away and become an individual, that's it. The investors withdraw their support and the show's over. Steve controlled the public so well that with just one speech, he is able to turn the teens against himself.

I liked this movie. Perhaps the reason it did so poorly when originally released is because it didn't seem relevant. Today, it certainly is. The "futuristic" British society portrayed seems a bit of a stretch (at one point the crowds chant "We must conform! We must conform!"), but then, so does the society shown in 1984, in my opinion. Find this movie if you can, it's a great one and should be released on video!

Privilege is one of those `lost' rarely screened masterpieces that always seem to end up on some critic's top-ten list, but you almost never know anyone who has seen the film. It is no wonder no one has seen this film – it has never been available on video (except for crummy bootlegs), it's not shown on television any longer and revival theatres have long since forgotten about it. Why?

Privilege has much more pertinence now than it did back in 1967. Paul Jones (lead singer of Manfred Mann) plays Steve Shorter, a British manufactured rock-n-roll icon, who is shaped and molded into a tool used to sell every product imaginable. In one humorous moment, the British Apple Growers Association, having harvested far too many apples to be sold, hire Steve to do a commercial convincing each British person to eat six apples a day.

To the nation, Steve is a god. A symbol of everything that is pure and good. Steve can do no wrong. Unfortunately, Steve has no mind of his own and is easily led from concert-to-concert, commercial-to-commercial and meeting-to-meeting by his conniving, greedy managers. Everyone wants a piece of Steve. The mere mention of a product from Steve's lips will sway the entire nation's fashion sense – if Steve wears black, the whole country wears black. His managers know this and there is no organization they will not sell him out to.

`The Church', in an act to attract more young members into its congregation, hires Steve to convince the nation's youth to become God-fearing Christians. But, this does not sit well with Steve who is becoming more cognizant of his surroundings through the help of a young artist played by sixties supermodel, Jean Shrimpton.

Privilege, even though rarely shown, is a surreal motion picture every film fanatic and music historian should seek out. With teeny-bop stars like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson and NSYNC sprouting up like so many invasive weeds, Privilege is very worthy of a second look. Hurry, please, before it is too late.