This French co-production is another adaptation of Robert Sheckley’s satirical short story – previously filmed as Das Millionenspiel (1970; dir. Tom Toelle) and reviewed here. Taking its cue from crass Hollywood action films of the time, Boisset’s film is more concerned with visceral thrills than it is with dissecting the media mindset: the producers and crew of this film’s death-hunt TV show are pantomime villains seeking to perpetuate their corrupt lifestyles, rather than the more realistic scenario Toelle offered of ordinary people caught up in a misguided cultural cul-de-sac.

It’s an easy solution to view the perpetrators of any social, political or personal injustice as unremitting villains and gangsters, and all too often films that confront such important issues portray their causes and advocates as nefarious, bigoted and, occasionally, insanely ‘evil’. A film that aims to be objective – and, let’s face it, modern media professionals pride themselves on liberal, populist ideals – should never draw conclusions as to the moral righteousness of a scenario, but present as much material as possible regarding the topic and, most importantly, suggest alternatives that may be of more benefit to the participants. This process, which is negated by the common practice of false-objectivity (read about that here), is totally absent from films like Le prix du danger and similarly-themed productions like The Running Man (1987; dir. Paul Michael Glaser), Rollerball (2002; dir. John McTiernan) or even Thank You for Smoking (2005; dir. Jason Reitman).

This is an important cinematic lesson that remains untaught on the curriculums of universities and colleges, those compiled by lecturers who are far too eager to perpetuate the manipulative processes of the MAVM. By disregarding notions of democracy and objectivity within cinema, they conform to the myths that one day may land them a low-key documentary or drama on one of the UK’s leading broadcast channels. Negative stereotypes of villainy will continue in mainstream cinema and television until the didactic structure of much narrative filmmaking is revealed and replaced, ensuring that proper discourse regarding important issues – ones which reflect our anxieties in day-to-day living and for our future on this planet – will remain absent from the mass audio-visual media for some time to come.

Le prix du danger at the IMDb