The Gladiators

'The War Game' in a different form, and an obvious precursor to 'Punishment Park'. What sets Watkins apart from the myriad other filmmakers who critique the Machine/System through/as cinema, is his foregrounding of televisual processes not just as 'entertainment' but as the very agent of discipline, punishment and (Stieglerian) proletarianisation. As Captain Davidsson makes clear to B-3, specific knowledge and skills is required to operate ICARUS, but even authorised operators are made ignorant.

Watkins' active, roving eye is tied down and calmed by his rare use of 35mm, and the now-familiar core of the scifi-ish plot has the same effect. As usual for Watkins, though, dramatic elements are subservient to the film's complex commentary on war, the media as a technology of power, and social resistance. Here, for the first two, it is most interesting as a reference point in their evolution. The final conversation between the student and the operator, though, is still extremely relevant.

Made at exactly the same time that Bergman was making THE PASSION OF ANNA, both films are clearly affected by the winds that were blowing through Europe in the first half of 1968. Where Bergman turns inward, Watkins poses the problem of a lack of any realisable dream of an alternative future and raises the question of the function of audiovisual media. It also shares some themes and approaches with Lucas's two THX movies, with its focus on the cool dehumanisation brought by computer systems.

Some good ideas floating around and ahead of its time in many regards, yet ultimately more interesting than great.

"Can you call this a documentary?" "No." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2014/05/episode-12.html