Benefit of the Doubt, Review, 1965
- Benefit of the Doubt, Review, 1965
Regrettably it hasn't been possible to see the spectacle of collective creativity staged by Peter Brook with the Royal Shakespeare Company in October 1966 and called US (U.S. = United States and Us = ourselves) in any place other than London. In fact, Brook vigorously opposed the presentation of the production—which is about English apathy towards the war in Vietnam and directed specifically at English audiences—outside Great Britain.
Benefit of the Doubt, which was filmed last summer by 30-year old English director Peter Whitehead, is constructed upon the basis of US, but it isn't just the film of a play (as with, for example, Marat-Sade, both the theatrical and film productions of which were directed by Peter Brook).1 Just as important as the scenes from US, filmed in color, are the black and white sequences which offer up explanations about the origins of the enterprise—the actors' reflections on their experiences and also those of the director—all of which call into question the completed work, an interrogation of its scope, and its significance.
As a description of the English reality of Vietnam, the film aims to denounce the easy conscience, to "destabilize" the audience, and also to require them to question themselves, even to the point of taking action. The title, Benefit of the Doubt, refers to a legal rule which stipulates that a culprit who has not confessed to his crime may be acquitted "for the benefit of the doubt." Because this war is not our war, we are not American. So Brook poses a hypothetical question: let us imagine for a moment that all these horrors to which we are exposed by the press, film and television were not taking place in a faraway country, but instead on our own territory. Here is one more example of confronting the problem of being "far from Vietnam."2 [End Page 339]
Made with a minimum of resources, this film—which Peter Brook calls a "controlled happening" and a "film-collage"—doesn't aim to deliver answers. Based entirely on the contributions of the actors, it remains a theatrical experience, as performed by the extraordinary actors of the Royal Shakespeare Company, exposing their emotions, their responsibility toward the war, beyond any political explanation. This was the weak point of the play which, despite this reservation, presents us with cinema which is resolutely partisan, and is a vibrant witness to reality.3
Notes
1. Brook's Royal Shakespeare Production of Peter Weiss's play The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade [Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade] was first produced in 1964. Brook's film was released in 1967. The poet Adrian Mitchell, who appears in Whitehead's Wholly Communion, worked closed with Brook on the English adaptation.
2. This is a reference to the 1967 film Loin de Vietnam. The New York Times wrote: "Six directors combine efforts for this documentary, a searing anti-American indictment of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Alain Resnais, William Klein, Joris Ivens, Agnes Varda, Claude Lelouch, and Jean-Luc Goddard all direct segment."
3. First published in Nouvelles Litteraires, May 16, 1968. [End Page 340]
