While watching Peter Watkins's "Privilege", I got a vibe of both "Wild in the Streets" (about a rock star who runs for president) and "A Clockwork Orange" (in the sense of an autocratic government manipulating a well known figure for their own ends). But more than anything, this movie's protagonist is the precursor to all these so-called influencers. These people who announce that they like certain things, as if to imply that you and I should too, wield as much power as any politician. How long before one of them gets used the same way that the protagonist here does?

It's not a great movie - kind of slow at times - but it still serves as a good warning about letting celebrities have too much influence over the public. Watkins's 1969 movie "Gladiators" depicts a future in which war has become a TV sport, much like all these reality shows.

Paul Jones was a member of Manfred Mann, while Jean Shrimpton was a supermodel. Co-writer Johnny Speight created "Till Death Do Us Part", on which "All in the Family" was based.

Paul Jones is rock idol Steven Shorter in "Privilege," a 1967 film from Britain that also stars Jean Shrimpton. Shorter (Jones) has the minds and hearts of the British public with his Beatle-like appearance and music, so the people behind him use him to promote any agenda they have, be it pushing the consumption of apples, conformity, religion, you name it. He goes along with their current manipulation of the public until he meets a beautiful young artist (Shrimpton) who encourages him to delve deeper into his own feelings and desires.

The film has a great premise and lots of potential but for this viewer, it wasn't realized. It's very detached and meandering, and the acting is so "natural" as to be nonexistent. As Bette Davis once said, "Acting today is too natural. Real acting is larger than life." Well, what she was saying is that real acting has real energy - which the acting in "Privilege" lacks. There are some very good scenes, however, the ultimate being the outdoor rally which comes off as something from Hitler's Germany at the height of his political power. The rock versions of "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "Jerusalem" are great.

Jean Shrimpton at one time was a world-famous supermodel and a spectacular beauty. However, her lush hair, perfect bones, enormous luminous eyes and leggy stature could not help her - she would have easily flunked out of the Copacabana School of Acting. Paul Jones is actually a very good actor, and gets to show it in a couple of scenes, but he was directed to have that empty vessel syndrome - where you're such a blank that an audience can infuse anything they want into you. It's a good, true phenomenon - Greta Garbo was one such empty vessel - but it doesn't come off here.

For people who remember the British "mod" era, this will be of great interest.

Both the strengths and the flaws of PRIVILEGE are easily spotted within the first five minutes of its running time . A voice over announces it's Britain in the near future and Stephen Shorter messianic rock god is thrown over a barrier , dragged into a cage and harassed by sadistic warders much to the disgust of his captivated female audience of all ages . The background music of discordant guitar feedback changes to one of a synth with a guitar rift and Stephen bursts into a song that will have you playing air guitar and tapping your toes . In short the music is by far the best thing about the movie

So what's wrong with the rest of the miss en scene ? Peter Watkins insists on directing in the Italian Neo-realist style which while very popular amongst European film makers in the late 1940s and early 1950s - And not to mention amongst European film critics in the 1960s - is a style of film making that didn't catch on in mainstream cinema . It worked fine in Watkin's previous work like CULLODEN and THE WAR GAME but these were precursors to what we now call " docudramas " , the only time we see a natural home for the Italian neo-realist style . It should also be mentioned that the shots of weeping teenage girls gnashing their teeth and running their hands through their hair could only have come from the 1960s and isn't there something laughably ridiculous having women in their late middle age drooling over a music god ? Do the words " Monty " and " Python " and " Sketch " spring to mind ?

As the story continues there's something of a lack of internal continuity to this scene . You see both the state and the church want to use the popularity and charisma of Shorter to control the population for their own end , in short to make popular music in general and Stephen Shorter in particular the new opiate of the masses . If that's the case then why have Shorter portray himself as the angry young man and rebel in the start of the film ? Wouldn't that give rebellious youth a few ideas that the state would prefer them not to have in the first place ? There are a few more ridiculous scenes in the movie with pride of place going to the monks recording Onward Christian Soldiers . You can't help thinking this movie influenced Palin , Cleese , Chapman and co to start up a comedy troupe

These criticisms are noticeable but shouldn't be used as a weapon to attack the film as being a schlock movie or meaningless . Let's not forget if Bush and Blair want to be seen doing good in the world then all they have to do is call a press conference and have Bob Geldof and Bono talk about AIDS , starving babies and third world debt and the link between Nuremberg rallies and present day rock concerts is presented very well , it's just that you're never entirely convinced an Illuminati would never need to pull strings in order to bring about fascist regimes or fundamentalist theocracies because these type of societies come about via more obvious methods

PRIVILEGE was a film that was supposed to make a star out of Paul Jones and put Watkins on the map as Britain's most important film director . Unfortunately due to the rather heavy handed story which suits the director's style it caused a lot of distributors in both Britain and the United States to either refuse to show it or confine it to very limited release which meant very few people saw it . It's also a film that very rarely crops up on network television either , to my knowledge Channel 4 last showed it 20 years ago which is a great pity because this deserves to be at least a cult classic whatever its flaws and for music fans who have bought Patti Smith's Easter album just wait till you hear Jones perform the original Set Me Free