Richard's
... "As an aside, the terrestrial lineup this Xmas on British TV was
disappointing, testimony to the wholesale adoption of newer delivery systems
for domestic film consumption in this country, presumably."
omits something rather important, and for those unable, for continental
reasons, to have had access to "British TV", I feel it worth noting that
this (British) Christmas television season saw a deluge of WW2
documentaries, features and television dramas, spread across the four main
terrestrial channels.
The material included:
the whole (some 20 hours) of the World At War (Granade Television 1973)
series, narrated by Lawrence Olivier; dozens (it seemed) of "black and white
stiff-upper-lip" WW2 propaganda movies (The First Of The Few etc etc); US
1950's Pacific maritime dramas with steel-jawed US anglos fighting the
"n.ps"; one-off compilations of Nazi colo(u)r movie material; and culminated
in Albert Finney's portrayal of Winston Churchill in the late 1930's, as the
Nazi menace grew (The Gathering Storm - BBC 2002).
So complete was the blanket coverage that one could hardly miss the implicit
message / intent: to gird the British public towards the impending war by
reminding it of its twentieth century performance / victory.
Richard, however, got-off on the Panic Room which had as much modulation as
any normal rollercoaster and was profoundly un-Hitchcockian. Presumably
for the cinema-goers of 1939 Britain, the fare was American and diverting
also.
Incidentally, I wonder if there were any comparable trends to be discerned
across the US small screens?
A happy New Year!
Dr. David Woods
HOLCUS
Hull,
East Yorkshire
The best thing I saw at Xmas: Panic Room on DVD. Unabashedly American, and
bloody marvellous!"
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