Privilege (1967)

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After directing several extraordinary documentaries for the BBC, including the award-winning The War Game and Culloden, Peter Watkins made his first dramatic feature with this flawed but striking film about Steven Shorter (Paul Jones), a pop singer in a future society where entertainment is… More After directing several extraordinary documentaries for the BBC, including the award-winning The War Game and Culloden, Peter Watkins made his first dramatic feature with this flawed but striking film about Steven Shorter (Paul Jones), a pop singer in a future society where entertainment is controlled by a totalitarian government. Shorter's music and image are used to channel the impulses of rebellious youth; in one concert sequence, the crowd watches him sing a plaintive plea for love and understanding while locked in a cage surrounded by police officers armed with clubs. While Shorter is remarkably popular, he's also living a life created for him by the government, which Steven knows is a sham. When Shorter's handlers decide to revamp his image into that of an obedient, religious boy, he rebels, to his peril. Model Jean Shrimpton made her film debut here as an artist commissioned to paint a portrait of Shorter. Privilege later became something of a cult film; one of the film's admirers was rock poet Patti Smith, who recorded one of "Steven Shorter"'s songs, "Set Me Free," on her 1978 album Easter. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 41 min.
Directed By: Peter Watkins
Genres: Drama, Classics, Science Fiction & Fantasy

In Theaters: Feb 28, 1967 Wide
On DVD: Jul 29, 2008
Studio: Universal Pictures

Critic Reviews

Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
A raging and thoroughgoing satire of pop messiah-dom and media puppetry
Sean Axmaker, Turner Classic Movies Online
Watkins doesn't offer any pretense of subtlety in his brash portrait of pop stardom and the entertainment industry as the opiate of the masses...
Sean Axmaker, MSN.com
[Director Peter] Watkins doesn't bother with subtlety [and] he finds a strange, almost Christ-like figure in the passive [Paul] Jones...
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) picked up the same storyline and most thought he was a genius for doing so.
Bill Weber, Slant Magazine
Though Watkins delivered sharper countercultural-themed films later, Privilege had the jump on Easy Rider in telling a generation that they were going to blow it.
Bill Weber, Slant Magazine
While not primarily intended as prophecy, Watkins's tale of Shorter's reign and fall has resonances of celebrity activism from Bob Geldof to globe-hopping lobbyist Bono.

Read all 6 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Robert C

I'm guessing this is probably one of the earliest examples of a "mocumentary", which is impressive. What is also impressive is how eerily prophetic it is, to spite it's (sometimes) painfully dated moments. A telling look at the making, selling and ultimate… More
I'm guessing this is probably one of the earliest examples of a "mocumentary", which is impressive. What is also impressive is how eerily prophetic it is, to spite it's (sometimes) painfully dated moments. A telling look at the making, selling and ultimate distruction of a pop star. It is both campy and tragic. With some very interesting (and over the top) themes and visuals. It is no doubt used as a training film for the "talent" teams at Disney, who seem to think that every child actor needs to have a recording career and every child singer an acting career. And above all else - sell, sell, sell. There is no room for individual creativity, expression, integrity or (heaven forbid) dignity...use them until they are are no longer sellable and them kick them to the curb.
Walter M

Made in 1967, "Privilege" at first seems to be little more than just a reaction against Beatlemania as it starts with a ticker tape parade for rock star Steven Shorter(Paul Jones) in his home town of Birmingham, England.(If Jones' performance appears to be affectless,… More
Made in 1967, "Privilege" at first seems to be little more than just a reaction against Beatlemania as it starts with a ticker tape parade for rock star Steven Shorter(Paul Jones) in his home town of Birmingham, England.(If Jones' performance appears to be affectless, it might be on purpose, as the general idea here is to make Shorter look like he is undeserving of all the attention.) That is before a conceptual on-stage performance that puts his mainly female audience in hysterics, with a few looking like they are on the verge of an orgasm. But even at this early stage in his career, director Peter Watkins has bigger fish to fry than just celebrity with this thought-provoking, intelligent and powerful movie that is also the most creatively filmed of his docufictions. Set in the near future, this could also be our present, as the film is prescient about many things including music videos(recalling Shorter's performance on stage), the abomination of reality television(you will never be able to watch a promo for 'American Idol' the same way ever again) and Tony Blair's New Labour. In this world of almost one political party, there is conformity across the board, beginning from the top, and eventually laterally applied at the lower levels of society. The powers that be have co-opted and commodified Shorter, and through him, rebellion, so much that Vanessa(Jean Shrimpton), who has been hired to paint his portrait, is the only person not in awe of him. And whereas Ken Russell saw the rock star as god, Watkins sees religion as just another business to corrupt the rock star.