About TomsTVpicks

Most TV programs are crap, reflecting the fact that TV programming is designed primarily to keep advertisers happy or, in the case of the ABC, to reproduce the values of Australian nationalism. In this blog I try to sort out the wheat from the chaff. If you know of programs coming up that you think a left-wing audience would be interested in hearing about please contact me, Tom Bramble, at tombram@gmail.com. Please "follow" this blog by inserting your email in the box below to the right if you'd like to be sure of getting posts in your email inbox, and tell your friends about this blog (or "share" it on Facebook) if you think they'd like to read it too.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Tom's TV picks w/b 4 July 2011

Getting in early this week as there's a bunch of stuff on Monday and Tuesday:

First up, on Monday at 8.30pm: ABC 4 Corners: "The Killing Fields". Made by Britain's Channel 4, this is a documentary that tears apart the lies told by the Sri Lankan Government about its massacre of the Tamils in 2009. The 4 Corners website says: "The program contains disturbing descriptions and footage of executions, atrocities and the shelling of civilians. It includes devastating new video evidence of war crimes. Some of this material was shot on video cameras; other scenes are taken from mobile phones used by Sri Lankan soldiers as trophy vision. Put together it creates one of the most confronting stories of war and conflict ever seen on Australian television." Given that the Australian government has given political cover to the Sri Lankan government over years, hopefully it will make Gillard & Co squirm.

Three late-ish moves on SBS2 are the other picks this week:

Monday 10.30pm: "Pigs and Battleships" (1961) part of the Japanese New Wave cinema contemporaneous with the French. Summarised in the TV guide as follows: "This dazzling, unruly portrait of post-war Japan details, with escalating absurdity, the desperate power struggles between small-time gangsters in the port town of Yokosuka." But it's more than that. I haven't seen it myself, but one review adds: "While on first glance, Hogs and Warships might seem to be typical yakuza film fare, it is in fact laced with a strong social commentary on Japan's reliance on America and its "support" of America's further military actions within Asia, especially the Korean War." It's pretty bleak but could be worth viewing.

Tuesday 10.50pm: "The Axe" (2005). Forget "Up in the Air" which I thought was vastly over-rated and trivialised Corporate America's mass sackings, "The Axe" really sticks the knife into big business. It's nominally a comedy - as the long-term unemployed chemist played so well by Jose Garcia decides the only way to land a job is to kill all of his rivals in the job market - but there's a darkness to it that can only lead you to anger against the bastards who force even skilled white collar workers into desperate measures for the sake of a job. And there's no sugar pill at the end of it. Directed by the legendary Costa-Gavras, maker of "Z", "Stage of Siege" and "Missing" amongst other politically charged classics.

Thursday 9.30pm: "The Anarchist's Wife" (2008). Sorry, another punt here, haven't seen it. The TV guide says "A moving drama about the undying love and suffering of a couple affected by the Spanish Civil War over several decades." With the 75th anniversary of General Franco's coup coming up on 17 July, it might repay viewing as a reminder of the savagery of the Franco regime and the impact it had on the families of those who bravely fought him tooth and nail.

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