joshuwon
THE STATE WITHIN is possibly the most biased piece of work to come out of the BBC in many years.Once again, the members of the US government are warmongering death-profiteers in collusion with the Military-Industrial Complex.It's bad enough that Hollywood continually portrays the US government as the hidden enemy and industry as either their masters or loyal servants in the subjugation of third-world nations for the sake of making a buck.However when the British do it you have to begin to wonder who your real friends are? Sure, they can cry all they want about "literary license" but can they really claim that this type of propaganda has no effect in the West and all over the world? Then there are the social commentary that the film-makers decided to throw in. Multiple scenes of men making out with each other. Multiple weepy speeches about how the death penalty is wrong.Why not take all of your obvious talent and make something that is a little less politically-motivated?
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Such political fiction is flabbergasting. War has become a business in the hands of private interests. Armed and security forces have been privatized and today companies deal with war in order to make a profit out of it. They can't succeed without the right politicians in the right places, but that is always easy to get if these politicians are demagogical enough to flatter public opinion and to manipulate events to create the proper public opinion among the people, a public opinion they can easily use in order to move to the war they need to make some hefty profit. Who cares about the many million people that may die in the process. Actually they will get into the undertaking business to make a profit on the casualties too. That is the first interest of this miniseries. But there is plenty more. If the state can be colonized by the death peddlers, what happens internationally and hence to diplomacy? Diplomacy becomes, from that point of view, the right way to assassinate the right people after trapping them in some cage. A plane for instance that will be exploded at the right time and at the right moment to cause the horror and hate these businessmen need. Too bad for the victims who are not innocent in the eyes of these war mongers because innocence is cowardice and blindness and that is from this point of view the worst guilt you can imagine, unconscious guilt, the guilt of playing innocent, because that can only be a game, an illusion, a make believe. Throw all the innocent people in the world down some kind of chute without a parachute. Flush the world of all these cowards who may, if they are not manipulated, prevent a war, stop a plot, invert a scheme, a malefic scheme of course. But the film goes slightly further than that cynicism. Some people and even forces are against these plotters known as the neo-conservatives today, the Nazis some seventy years ago. The aim of these people and these forces who do not want to use war to benefit the petty interest of a few and to impose death and suffering to the vast majority of the people is always vastly insufficiently articulated and un-enlightened because too much is out of their reach. Some believe the state is the power OF the people FOR the people BY the people, but they have to bring hard evidence to convince the decision-makers to stop the plotters who do not need that kind of evidence since they use the gut reactions of the people moved by the sensational news brought to them by the media. And to get that hard evidence you have to get down into the gutters of life, down into the sewage of hatred, down into the darkest seepage of the endocrinal perspiration of the money-aiming egocentric criminals that are driven by both fear and greed. The film shows marvelously how the real manipulators at the top of the plot, or at the bottom if your prefer, are moved constantly by greed that is unspeakable and the fear that this greed nourishes, nurtures and grows in their logic that knows the profit of this greed might be denied at any time. They turn paranoid because of their greed and they start making mistakes. Politicians in that field are slightly more complex because they become addicted by being under the influence of their ambition to take power, to keep power and use power in order to satisfy their vengeance somewhere, their lust for power somewhere else and their total disregard for others everywhere because they are locked up in their schizophrenia, but a schizophrenia that has managed to get rid of the positive side of the double or triple personality and that has only retained the negative megalomaniac side of it. They may even think they are inspired by some god, that they may be, that they are god himself, or herself, who cares, since after all he or she may be gay. A diplomat then has only one advantage in that situation: he is covered by some real security, independence and freedom and he can use that to get to the root of the evil and to manage the truth to come out. And yet he cannot protect all his friends, all his associates, who will be seen as accomplices if he fails, and who are the first targets for the plotters. The film yet is optimistic somewhere, maybe even naïve. Yes the warmongers were stopped before they could enter Iran. But the war mongers are still here and are still plotting. They even use all kinds of social or ethnic problems in the world to put those who would oppose their ambition ill at ease and in a difficult situation. Even the present economic crisis is used in that direction, and now those who were supposed to suffer most are getting through, not unharmed but unscathed, they try to get things back on rails and move to another provocation, who knows what. They used Al Qaeda in Afghanistan against the Soviets and they are ready to use, and they have already vastly infiltrated them, Al Qaeda tomorrow anywhere it could be useful to block those who are not playing their game, to impose havoc and chaos anywhere they can. They will even manipulate elections in order to bring social upheaval here and electoral discredit there. It is the state within. This film is a masterpiece because it shows western private companies are hiring mercenaries in one western country in order to destabilize and manipulate another western country in order to get the war they want in some far away oil heaven and underdeveloped country. Only the BBC can come up with such political fiction.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID
chrichtonsworld
This thriller can be described as "24" without the action but with the same wonderful twists and turns. Not until the fourth episode you get some sense what the story is about. Of course the plot seems far fetched. But if you look at Bush and his policy it suddenly is closer to home than you imagine. It is also obvious that this series is some sort of protest or at least criticism against US policy regarding terrorists and the death penalty. (The attention this sub plot got was gripping drama at best. Excellent performance by Lennie James!) We get some insight what a British ambassador does and needs to do in order to maintain his position. Jason Isaacs who is most famous for portraying villains is wonderful and amazing as the main character. Tough,diplomatic,a man of action and not afraid to show his compassion and emotion. He really shows it all. What more do you want. Good performances,intriguing plot and solid entertainment! I hope we will see more of shows like this in the future.
17268
Thank you, BBC America, for bringing American audiences "The State Within." As Sharon Gless was quoted in one of the preceding reviews, you really won't know what is going on until the end of the mini-series.The plot is Byzantine is its endless twists and turns. The viewer is never sure who the heroes and villains are until the end-- several characters reverse themselves more than once. The relevancy to current and recent American, British, and Middle Eastern politics makes the action even more compelling.The writing is top-notch--the viewer must keep his eyes and ears open; "The State Within" isn't written for a large segment of today's TV/film audiences. What a joy to watch this mini-series unfold and present a challenge and a treat for the mind.Acting is uniformly excellent. American views will be most familiar with Sharon Gless, more-or-less playing Dick Cheney (you'll understand this when you see her) totally without vanity but with complete believability. Jason Isaacs is outstanding in the lead male role, which largely mirrors Tony Blair. Looming large--very large--over everything is a sinister global corporation accurately based (I think) on Halliburton.The production values are superb. I have no idea what the budget for the series was, but every dollar is on the screen. The unfolding of a terrorist plot in the opening minutes is exceptionally well-done, as are numerous other sequences throughout the plot. To sum up, the acting, writing, direction, and production values are on a par with virtually any major-studio production, unlike most television programming.I have deliberately skimped on plot details--the less you know going in, the more you'll enjoy waiting for all the riddles to be solved. And the ending is a provocative one. Margaret Mitchell would have approved!
