Alan Clarke had just made a documentary called 'Vodka-Cola',
about the creeping influence that the big corporations were
gaining over world politics,and I suppose he felt that people
wouldn't really get what the whole thing was about unless he
dramatised it - so we got this remarkable movie. Graham Crowden runs a multinational that wants to expand into
the USSR (still, of course, officially the enemy in 1981). Tony Doyle
is his smoothly thuglike right-hand-man. Steven Berkoff is Doyle's
opposite number in the Russian delegation. We see some
beautifully observed scenes evoking the mind-numbing boredom
of high-level business dealings, contrasted with the foul-mouthed
energy of the behind-the-scenes action. The story really kicks off,
though, when it turns out that the Russians will play along, but only
if the company gives them access to their state-of-the-art laser
technology... which can, of course, be used as weaponry... The film portrays politicians as being alternately bullied and bribed
by big business, ultimately colluding in the destruction of their own
native industries in order to save money for the 'greater good' -
globalisation. All this twenty years before Naomi Klein's 'No Logo'. But I shouldn't make it sound like a dry dissertation of a movie - the
performances, as always with Clarke, are superb, and it's great to
see the late Tony Doyle's powerhouse performance. could British TV ever make something as intellectually challenging
today....?
about the creeping influence that the big corporations were
gaining over world politics,and I suppose he felt that people
wouldn't really get what the whole thing was about unless he
dramatised it - so we got this remarkable movie. Graham Crowden runs a multinational that wants to expand into
the USSR (still, of course, officially the enemy in 1981). Tony Doyle
is his smoothly thuglike right-hand-man. Steven Berkoff is Doyle's
opposite number in the Russian delegation. We see some
beautifully observed scenes evoking the mind-numbing boredom
of high-level business dealings, contrasted with the foul-mouthed
energy of the behind-the-scenes action. The story really kicks off,
though, when it turns out that the Russians will play along, but only
if the company gives them access to their state-of-the-art laser
technology... which can, of course, be used as weaponry... The film portrays politicians as being alternately bullied and bribed
by big business, ultimately colluding in the destruction of their own
native industries in order to save money for the 'greater good' -
globalisation. All this twenty years before Naomi Klein's 'No Logo'. But I shouldn't make it sound like a dry dissertation of a movie - the
performances, as always with Clarke, are superb, and it's great to
see the late Tony Doyle's powerhouse performance. could British TV ever make something as intellectually challenging
today....?
