TV programs worth watching
Sun August 31 — Sat September 6

The four-part documentary series Rebels And Redcoats: The American 
Revolutionary War (ABC 7.30pm Sundays) is presented by Richard Holmes, 
Professor of History at Cranfield University.

Holmes is determined to cut through the patriotic nonsense of Hollywood 
coverage of this subject and reveal the essence of the American colonies' 
revolt. And the series begins well, with Holmes reminding us that, for all 
the idealistsic speeches, the rebellion was essentially brought about for 
economic reasons.

In fact, he says, it was organised and led by the landowners, merchants, 
traders, entrepreneurs and some of the better off artisans among the 
colonists who objected to the British authorities trying to interfere with 
their right to make as much money as they could.

To my mind, however, the series too quickly settles down to a blow-by-blow 
account of the revolutionary war. How many times the British soldiers 
marched up the hill is not all that significant, really, but Holmes leaves 
nothing out.

Horns And Halos (SBS 8.00pm Sunday) is a fascinating, moving report 
on the fight to republish a controversial biography of George W Bush. 
Sounds dull? Well it is anything but.

US publishers hasten to produce quickly-written "gloss" biographies of 
anyone who is momentarily a celebrity, like candidates for President, which 
is what George W Bush was in October 1999, when a biography of him, 
Fortunate Son by Jim Hatfield, was published.

Hatfield, however, was repulsed by Bush's politics and personal history and 
had dug deeper than usual for such books. He covered Bush's dodging the 
draft during the Vietnam War, his insider trading, his cocaine use in 1972. 
The book quickly went to number seven on Amazon's best seller list.

The Bush camp tried to ride over the cocaine allegations ("I haven't taken 
drugs for 25 years" said Bush) but then they obviously told their lawyers 
to "get" the author. Hatfield turned out to have a criminal record which 
was promptly splashed everywhere.

Amazon withdrew the book, the publisher withdrew the book. Then a little 
"left-of-centre" publisher run by a 29-year-old punk rocker, Sander Hicks, 
who worked as a janitor, took over the book and republished it.

Horns And Halos is a modern US documentary: to avoid lawsuits it 
lets the people it interviews make the controversial statements, and 
includes enough people presenting the opposite viewpoint to allow it to 
claim if pressed that it is impartial.

But all the time, through skilful editing it is pointing the viewer towards 
the appropriate conclusions. And the conclusions are grim: the use of power 
and wealth to silence dissenting voices, the use of the legal system to do 
the same, the manipulation of the media, the hounding of those considered 
to be "enemies" of the ruling class.

Some of the most moving material is when Hatfield tells us that, as a 
twice-convicted person who will go to jail for life if he is ever convicted 
again, "they've only got to find something on me or plant something on me 
and I'll be banged up for ever".

Near the end of the film he is accused of attempted credit card fraud and 
takes his own life. Hicks breaks down and sobs uncontrollably. But he gets 
the book out.

The film includes interesting scenes on the US left (or part of it at any 
rate) in action. I particularly liked the march, outside the Republican 
Convention, of people dressed up to the nines purporting to be 
"Billionaires for Bush" and carrying the sort of placards and chanting the 
slogans you would expect billionaires to use if they were honest about 
their intentions. Lovely political theatre.

Reminiscent of the '60s, this is very much an alternative US culture up 
against the Man; little punk rock clubs, student teach-ins, impoverished 
basement publishing houses all in action against corporate Amerika. Well 
worth watching, but keep your eyes and ears open.

For sheer stomach-turning claptrap you would have to go a long way to beat 
Hollywood Religions, screening on Compass (ABC 9.40pm 
Sundays). This is a fairly shallow survey of the myriad of religions that 
infest the movie capital rather than the movies.

I found scenes of Richard Gere, a leading proponent of Tibettan Buddhism, 
telling us how the Dalai Lama radiates goodness and how he and other 
celebrities like Goldie Hawn raise lots of money for "the Tibettan cause" 
rather tragic.

But Gurmukh, Yoga teacher to the stars, spouting unadulterated pablum in 
the kind of voice used by phony mediums in Hollywood "B" movies, was too 
much and I gave up, missing out on Angel Therapy and Sweat Your 
Prayers. Perhaps you will have a stronger stomach than I.

Don't forget, the second episode of A Case For The Coroner on 
Reality Bites (ABC 8.00pm Tuesdays) this week it concludes the 
inquest into the death of 14-year-old Amber Stewart. This is a splendid, if 
sad, series that deserves to be seen.

The final episode of The Age Of Terror in The Big Picture 
slot (ABC 8.30pm Wednesdays) is concerned with state-sponsored 
terrorism. Typically, this very right-wing, pro-Bush White House take on 
the subject, although it covers Argentina's "Dirty War" and Reagan's 
support of the Nicaraguan Contras, uses these experiences (now, safely, 
well in the past) to give credibility to its diatribes against Libya, Iraq 
and especially Iran.

If you want to know what the Solomon Islands look like, you'll get some 
very attractive seascapes and skyscapes in True Stories: The Search for 
Kennedy's PT109 (ABC 10.00pm Thursday).

You'll also have to put up with a lot of American bullshit over what was 
after all a very minor skirmish of WW2, that would not even be recorded at 
all if one of the crew had not later become President of the USA.

Made by National Geographic, the participants strive mightily to 
make us believe that finding this sunken torpedo boat is historically 
important. They fail, but the story of the Australian Coastwatcher and the 
Solomon Islanders who actually rescued Kennedy and his crew is interesting 
and towards the end moving.

The Narrow Margin, this week's RKO noir thriller (ABC 10.15pm 
Saturday), was a sleeper when it came out. No one expected it to make a 
splash (it was just a little thriller to bolster mid-week programs at the 
local cinema), but its stylish use of its railway train setting made it a 
minor classic.

Tautly directed by Richard Fleischer and very well photographed by George E 
Diskant, it is well worth a look.