On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.
On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the
generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would
like to help, contact us.
___________
Peter Weir's The Truman Show turned 25 last year. Impressive when it first aired, it remains so in view of its deep engagement with the human condition.
Newspapers such as The Guardian Australia even urged the PM to get with the Swift program, as her 'ubiquity in a fragmented world might carry some broader lessons...'
After four seasons, the well should have run dry, with those amiable darlings vanishing in a devastating Australian drought. But fecundity has returned, and the landscape abloom with flourishing feeds.
What struck me was Barry's extraordinary spontaneity; his ability to come up with one funny idea after another in rapid succession and bring Peter Luck along with the ideas.
He was always a step ahead, his mind geared not only for the next move, but the next sequence. He also smelt it, anticipated the audience reaction, shaped the prejudice in context for consumption.
As Wood writes , the honourable response to the attack on Rushdie would have been to admit a failure to protect a brave author and declare 'that we are all Rushdie now'.
