Green Guide's Critical View
The Age
Wednesday March 30, 2011
FREE TO AIRWIKILEAKS: WAR, LIES & VIDEOTAPEABC2, 8.30pmTHE operations of WikiLeaks are the focus of this French documentary, which also features an interview with the organisation's controversial founder, Australian Julian Assange. Presented in English, the production examines WikiLeaks' deliberately elusive modus operandi and the impact of its release of secret American government and military documents, some related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as to the country's conduct of diplomacy. Straightforward in style, the documentary raises a range of timely questions about the small gang of journalists and computer hackers that has attracted the wrath of the US government. DEBI ENKERPAY TVLITTLE CHOCOLATIERSLifeStyle Food, 9pmTHERE'S quite the vogue for "little people" in reality TV these days. As a trend it seems to be running second only to shows about families that have had quintuplets, sextuplets or some other form of multiple-birth melodrama. This series follows husband-and-wife candy makers Steve Hatch and Katie Masterson, who run a chocolate shop in Salt Lake City. They seem like good sorts and their skills are amazing but there's not much in the way of excitement. BRAD NEWSOMEMOVIEROB ROY (1995)Movie Extra (pay TV), 4.25pmTHE life and times of Robert Roy MacGregor, the early 18th-century Scottish folk hero, has furnished numerous fictionalised versions. In Michael Caton-Jones's film, shot on location in the Scottish highlands, Liam Neeson plays the clan leader as a man of stern moral reserve, disapproving of English subjugation and determined to live on his own terms. The occupiers, in turn, are vain, wicked and corrupt, with the hero having to face the malevolent trio of the Duke of Montrose (John Hurt), his cunning administrator (Brian Cox) and a hired sword, Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth). CRAIG MATHIESON
© 2011 The Age
