I watched.....

Two things on TV late last night:

Small Faces and The Corner

SMALL FACES:
Small Faces
Tue 2 Dec, 11:55 pm - 1:40 am 105mins

A gritty British film by the acclaimed director Gillies MacKinnon, co-written with his brother Billy MacKinnon.

The story of three MacLean brothers growing up in Glasgow circa 1968. Young Lex is caught between the gang battles in which his brother Bobby is violently involved, and the more artistic aspirations of his other brother, Alan. Strong language, violence, disturbing and adult scenes. [1996]


Lorna MacLean ...... Clare Higgins
Uncle Andrew ...... Ian McElhinney
Alan MacLean ...... Joseph McFadden
Bobby MacLean ...... Steven Duffy
Lex MacLean ...... Iain Robertson
Malky Johnson ...... Kevin McKidd
Charlie Sloan ...... Garry Sweeney
Teacher ...... John Murtagh
Fabio ...... David Walker
Tutor ...... Thomas Logan
Gorbals ...... Mark McConnochie

Subtitles Stereo Widescreen
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and THE CORNER:

01:20 Today Channel 4
The Corner
Award-winning mini-series based on a true story, focusing on a Baltimore family's battle against drugs and despair. While the father of the family fights heroin addiction and his wife struggles with her own problems, their son attempts to resist the lure of the drug corners which make up his daily world

Starring: TK Carter, Khandi Alexander, Sean Nelson
Duration: 65mins
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Worth watching. What can I say? I've put this stuff on because its rare enough anything good gets on mainstream telly, even though this was all on late at night. Small Faces had some fantastic photography, gutting landscapes and bleak barren estates, really good lighting and screenplay between the characters. The whole look was absolutely brilliant in a fuck the rotten world sort of way. The Corner, which is probably more well known, is like the one about the prison - Oz - heavy and real, in an american way. Very much the other side of the coin. I'm glad its on, even though I get the feeling it's a bit cliched and hollywood in it's attitude.


Although it's probably thirty years since 'Cathy Come Home', (BBC documentary about homeless family in the early sixties), the theme to these programmes never changes. Why does nothing ever change? In the west we all spout on about democracy, rights of the individual and free trade, but it's all bollocks. The overt hypocrisy of the situation is obvious to everyone, not just the so called terrorists. They are only the extreme tiny minority of a huge amount of very disenfranchised people. All over the world, not just the so called third one. America's big secret is it's hidden poor. The great big lie of capitalism is that it's a flat playing field. Oh well, aint nothin us small people can do about it but rant. We're all in our place, according to our 'earnings bracket'.