i'm glad this is up here. this looks to be a very interesting series.
from charlie brooker's guardian review...........
"the trap - what happened to our dream of freedom? (sun, 9pm, bbc2), which
is written and directed by a person called adam curtis. you might recognise him
as the author of the controversial 2004 series the power of nightmares, one of
the best documentaries i've seen in the past five years (narrowly beating 2002's
century of the self - also by curtis - into second place in the private bafta
ceremony in my head).
curtis has an uncanny knack for hovering coolly above recent world history and
spotting huge, sweeping, disturbing trends, then recounting them in a way that
feels subversive and playful, thoughtful and entertaining, all at once. he has
an incredible eye for archive footage, assembling one haunting montage after
another, apparently from thin air. his programmes unfold like a series of
revelations; watching one is like having all your slumbering suspicions about
the world - suspicions so dormant you didn't even realise they were suspicions -
confirmed and explained for the very first time. this is either proof of the
veracity of his arguments, or his film-making skills, or both.
the central argument in the trap is that modern society is based on a bleak view
of humankind hatched during the cold war, when us military tacticians studied
game theory in an attempt to predict what the russians would do. they concluded
it was better to selfishly stockpile weapons than work toward mutual disarmament
- because what if the other side didn't play ball?
the result was years of terrifying d
from charlie brooker's guardian review...........
"the trap - what happened to our dream of freedom? (sun, 9pm, bbc2), which
is written and directed by a person called adam curtis. you might recognise him
as the author of the controversial 2004 series the power of nightmares, one of
the best documentaries i've seen in the past five years (narrowly beating 2002's
century of the self - also by curtis - into second place in the private bafta
ceremony in my head).
curtis has an uncanny knack for hovering coolly above recent world history and
spotting huge, sweeping, disturbing trends, then recounting them in a way that
feels subversive and playful, thoughtful and entertaining, all at once. he has
an incredible eye for archive footage, assembling one haunting montage after
another, apparently from thin air. his programmes unfold like a series of
revelations; watching one is like having all your slumbering suspicions about
the world - suspicions so dormant you didn't even realise they were suspicions -
confirmed and explained for the very first time. this is either proof of the
veracity of his arguments, or his film-making skills, or both.
the central argument in the trap is that modern society is based on a bleak view
of humankind hatched during the cold war, when us military tacticians studied
game theory in an attempt to predict what the russians would do. they concluded
it was better to selfishly stockpile weapons than work toward mutual disarmament
- because what if the other side didn't play ball?
the result was years of terrifying d
