Privilege (1967)

Privilege (UK, 1967) 103 min, color DIR: Peter Watkins. PROD: John Heyman. SCR: Norman Bogner. DOP: Peter Suschitzky. MUSIC: Mike Leander. CAST: Paul Jones, Jean Shrimpton, Mark London, Jeremy Child. (Universal)

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Within a year after John Lennon uttered the infamous statement that The Beatles were more famous than Jesus, British enfant terrible director Peter Watkins (best known today for The War Game) released a wild quasi-futuristic, Orwellian satire, Privilege (1967), in which a rock star was indeed Jesus to the young people. 

Paul Jones, from the group Manfred Mann, portrays pop teen idol Steven Shorter, whose image is essentially controlled by a bureaucracy. Everything Steve wears or says, the mindless public echoes. In today’s climate of the accountants being the true puppeteers of entertainment figures (especially young pop stars), this synopsis may not sound all that shocking. I mean, flocks of young girls began wearing painters’ overalls, just because Avril Lavigne did it once.

But still, Watkins takes this scenario for a wild ride. In the insane opening, Steve is doing a bizarre piece of musical performance art in which he is mock-beaten and jailed by an offshoot of the “thought police”. Yet, Steve is not merely a rock and roll star (in fact this piece of theatre at the beginning prophesizes the operatic nature that rock concerts would soon become), he is the world. His face is also seen in commercials, where his appearance alone will make his minions desire whatever product he is unwittingly pushing. In one dryly hilarious bit, because there is a surplus of apples in this year’s harvest, Steve is instructed to tell his horde to eat six apples a day! (They do.) The casting of Paul Jones is actually an inspired choice. Considering we have seen Spencer Davis and Dave Clark act in much lighter, less demanding screen fare, this scenario is simply too heavy for an untrained actor… or is it? Therefore, Jones’ unschooled acting adds the perfect bit of aloofness to his character, as Steve is never in control of his own image. Steve wants to detach himself from “Steve”, yet the governing powers behind his public image have even greater plans for him.

The church wants Steve to spread the good word, so that the young generation will convert to Christianity. In this world, however, Christianity is not a Divine Thing, it is as much a commodity as everything else in “Steve’s world”. The afore-mentioned quasi-futuristic setting is largely suggested through its allusions to 1984, the almost science-fiction plot of totalitarian control, and a scene in an ultra-modern shopping center. Otherwise, the locations in this movie seem rather commonplace, everyday, now. However it has an otherworldly, almost medieval feel due to its muddy, charcoal tones. It is a world that could be now, then, or soon (its anachronistic feel perhaps influenced Derek Jarman’s pictures)- it is reminiscent of Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville taking place on another planet, yet blatantly shot in present-day Paris. Whatever this world is, it is hardly inviting. One should add that the film’s dark look is provided by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, who has worked on every Cronenberg picture since Dead Ringers (a body of work that also feels equal parts naturalistic and otherworldly). Thus, the epiphany at the end, as people sing the hymn “Jerusalem”, as the image of Steve the sacrificial lamb is displayed in the background, is genuinely creepy.

When the bishops want Steve to preach the gospel to the young, this is not really a major plot change. If anything, this is a crescendo of what has slowly built since the film’s beginning. Shortly after the jarring piece of violent theatre in the opening, one of the bureaucratic puppeteers mentions that one must pay attention to his wrists after so many of these performances! Thus, this film seems like one long Easter weekend that culminates into something that seems located in Salem instead of the Holy Land.

Although Privilege has been rarely seen since its premiere (it is not on video, save for –ahem- a grey-market DVD that is available), its influence is not to be underestimated. Clips of this picture can be seen in Big Audio Dynamite’s “Just Play the Music” video. Also, the mantra-like “We must conform” heard by the faceless “Steve-heads”, and the visual allusions to fascist control most certainly presage Alan Parker’s Pink Floyd: The Wall. 

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Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #17, “Rock And Roll Goes To The Movies”. Since this review, it was released to DVD in its homeland as part of the amazing BFI Flipside collection, and on this side of the pond by Kino Lorber.