Happy 85th Birthday, Peter Watkins! Born today in 1935, this English author and film and television director is one of the pioneers of docudrama. His films present pacifist and radical ideas in a nontraditional style.
Born in Norbiton, Surrey, England, United Kingdom, Watkins, years later, completed his National Service with the East Surrey Regiment.
This was followed by studying at the Christ College in Cambridge. After this, he matriculated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London to study acting.
Post-graduation, Watkins began his career in advertising as an assistant producer and turned to amateur filmmaking in the late 1950s.
He later began his television and film career as an assistant producer of short television films and commercials.
In the early 1960s, he was an assistant editor and director of documentaries at the BBC.
While there, he pioneered this technique in writing and directing his first full-length television film. This was the 1964 British black and white war/drama film 'Culloden'.
Upon airing, the scope and formal innovation of 'Culloden' drew immediate critical acclaim for the previously unknown director, and the BBC commissioned him for another ambitious production later that same year.
This would be the film of which Watkins is best known for writing, producing, and directing, being the forty-four-minute 1965 British black and white pseudo-documentary war/drama television film 'The War Game'.
In this British documentary, a hypothetical Chinese invasion of South Vietnam triggers a new world war between East and West.
In the town of Rochester, Kent, the anticipation of a nuclear attack leads to mass evacuations.
When a stray missile actually explodes, the ensuing firestorm blinds all those who see it.
It's not long before the fabric of society is ripped apart owing to radiation poisoning, a lack of infrastructure and rioting for food and other necessities.
'The War Game' graphically portrays the nightmare of nuclear war. It depicts the prelude to, and the immediate weeks of the aftermath of, a Soviet nuclear attack against Britain.
The narrator says that Britain's current nuclear deterrent policy threatens a would-be aggressor with devastation from Vulcan and Victor nuclear bombers of the British V bomber force.
The film was shot in the Kent towns of Tonbridge, Gravesend, Chatham and Dover.
The cast was almost entirely made up of non-actors, casting having taken place via a series of public meetings several months earlier.
Much of the filming of the post-strike devastation was shot at the Grand Shaft Barracks, Dover.
The commenation was provided by Peter Graham with English television presenter Michael Aspel reading the quotations from source material.
British cinematographer tand photographer Peter Suschitzky was uncredited as assisting in shooting the film.
'The War Game' later caused dismay within the BBC and also within government, and was subsequently withdrawn before the provisional screening date of October 7, 1965.
The corporation said that "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting. It will, however, be shown to invited audiences..."
With a runtime of only forty-four minutes, the production for 'The War Game' was subsequently and eventually released to cinemas. It premiered at the National Film Theatre in London, on April 13, 1966, where it ran until May 3.
The following year, 'The War Game' won a UN Award and a BAFTA Film Award for Best Short Film. This occurred at the 20th British Academy Film Awards in 1967.
The film later received an Oscar for Best Documentary Features. This occurred at the 39th Academy Awards in mid-April 1967.
Citing their 1969 Bed-in efforts and Peace Concert, an interviewer asked John Lennon and Yoko Ono, "Is there any one particular incident that got you started in this peace campaign?".
John answered, "...the thing that really struck it off was a letter we got from a guy called Peter Watkins who made a film called The War Game.
It was a very long letter stating just what's happening – how the media is really controlled, how it's all run, and everything else that people really know deep down.
He said 'People in your position have a responsibility to use the media for world peace'.
And we sat on the letter for about three weeks thinking 'Well, we're doing our best. All you need is love, man.' That letter just sort of sparked it all off. It was like getting your induction papers for peace!"
After the banning of 'The War Game' and the poor reception of Watkins' first non-television feature, (the 1967 British Technicolor sci-fi/satire film 'Privilege'), he left England and had made all of his subsequent films abroad.
'The War Game' was eventually televised in Great Britain on July 31, 1985, during the week before the 40th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.
This was the day before a repeat screening of the 1984 British apocalyptic war/drama television film 'Threads'.
The broadcast for 'The War Game' was preceded by an introduction from Scottish journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author Ludovic Kennedy.
In 2004, Watkins wrote the book The Media Crisis: A Perspective by Peter Watkins. It discusses the monoform and the lack of debate around the construction of new forms of audiovisual media.
'Freethinker: The Life and Work of Peter Watkins', is a forthcoming biography by British Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Patrick Murphy at York St John University, as well as Dr John Cook.
The film is also being compiled with Watkins' active help and participation.
Among his credits, Watkins is also known for directing 'The Gladiators' (1969), 'Punishment Park' (1971), 'Edward Munch in Norway' (1974), the fourteen-and-a-half hour 'Resan' ('The Journey') (1984), and 'La Commune (Paris, 1871)' (2000).
Of 'La Commune' (Paris, 1871)', American film critic and author Jonathan Rosenbaum called the almost six-hour feature Watkins' "latest magnum opus."
Nearly all of Watkins' films have used a combination of dramatic and documentary elements to dissect historical occurrences or possible near future events, as if contemporary reporters and filmmakers were there to interview the participants.
His films present pacifist and radical ideas in a nontraditional style. Watkins mainly concentrates his works and ideas around the mass media and our relation/participation to a film or television documentary.
Watkins has been active from 1956–present.
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