DEADLOCK

US, 1969, 75 minutes, Colour.
Leslie Nielsen, Aldo Ray, Ruby Dee.
Directed by Lamont Johnson.

Deadlock is quite a good action telemovie - the clash between a police chief and a district attorney. There are overtones of mob and gangster violence and also racial clashes. The film was a pilot for a series that did not eventuate. The film has Lamont Johnson as its director. He has made quite a number of interesting telemovies including The Execution of Private Slovick and some effective short features for the cinema.

1 The significance of the title, the indication of issues and themes? The quality of the film as a telemovie, its style, technical adaptation to the television net, commercials etc.? Yet the emphasis on the environment, the openness of the photography with the streets etc.?

2. How valuable is this kind of telemovie? The presentation of social issues for a family viewing? How accurate and deep was the presentation of social, racial, political issues? Police and the administration of justice?

3. The impact of the structure: the police car at beginning and end, the radio programme, the police work, the typical city day? A framework for politics, personal conflict, racial tension, justice, violence and death, the resolution of problems?

4. The importance of the emphasis on black politics, the pressures, the District Attorney's office, political unrest, the role of subgroups, the influence of militants? Which sequences best illustrated this? Impact for American audiences, non-Americans?

5. The presentation of the police in Danforth? The potential clash? The characters of the two men in their deadlock?

6. The presentation and deals - personal clashes, political undertones, the need for co-operation?

7. The picturing of the militants, their school, their groups, Melissa and her fanaticism, her co-operation, the taunts against the political establishment? The contribution to the racial tension, to its resolution?

8. The contribution of the minor characters for example, Lucinda and her way of life, Logan and his interrogation?

9. Particular crises as highlighting the issues of the film, the man on the ledge, the crowds gathering, the unrest, the potential violence, reacting for the wrong reasons?

10. The aspects of the murder mystery for the films the police tracking down the murderer, the political involvement, the showdown In the bowling alley after all the strands of investigation? The violence and what each was prepared to suffer for the sake of the truth emerging?

11. How accurate and interesting a statement on the state of America in the late sixties? The values, the hopes?