This genre-bending film from Peter Watkins is a highly political, somewhat dystopian projection of a new possible theater for world conflict. In fear of worldwide nuclear destruction, global superpowers stage highly irregular battles containing small teams of experts engaging in a limited, closed setting, all of which is controlled by a giant computer. While the soldiers battle it out, the nation’s generals watch from a privileged position away from the action. The rest of the world watches too, as an Italian pasta company sponsors a broadcast of the event, which is the highest rated program on the globe.
Watkins employees a modified version of his documentary style – here, the grunt soldiers are non-professional actors who at times speak to the camera in candid, improvised interviews, while the generals act more as ominous synecdoches for their countries (the Chinese representatives endlessly quote Mao, the British crave nostalgic imperialism and order). The grim and other-worldly setting for the battle (a mansion estate in “neutral” Sweden) is a compelling backdrop for the main substance of the film, which includes a disenfranchised, radical French student, troublesome hippies, and a series of racial and cultural tensions. The powerful climax illustrates Watkins’ pessimism toward the contemporary global situation, where oppressive systems of power complexly inter-relate and easily dominate.
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