Frontline

Places
Accession Number F10474
Collection type Film
Measurement 54 min 4 sec
Object type Documentary
Physical description 16mm
Maker Judge, Robin
Pringle, Ruth
Connolly, Bob
Perry, David
Bradbury, David
Young, Stewart
Davis, Neil Brian
Bradbury, David
Lee, Lindsay
Wykes, Denise
Midnight Oil
Oxenburgh, Richard
Bradbury, David
Manning, Clifford
Place made Australia
Date made 1979
Conflict Period 1970-1979
Vietnam, 1962-1975
Copyright

Item copyright: Unlicensed copyright

Description

David Bradbury's documentary film on Australian television news cameraman/correspondent Neil Davis and his experience of the war in Vietnam and Cambodia. Davis had spent 11 years covering the war mainly for Visnews and, later towards the end of the conflict, as freelance cameraman. He saw the escalation of the war from the direct American involvement in 1964 to the fall of the governments in Cambodia and South Vietnam. Davis was the only western journalist to film the collapse of the Republic of Vietnam during the North Vietnamese invasion in 1975 and his footage taken of the North Vietnamese tanks crashing trough the gates of Presidential Palace has become one of the iconic images of that war. Bradbury skilfully combines contemporary interviews with Davis shot in Australia and Thailand with period film, much of which is made up of Davis's own striking footage filmed in front line combat. The story of the war and Davis's sympathy for Vietnamese and Cambodian people and personal ethic to portray the truth emerge in the interview segments. Davis was committed to trying to show the war from the Vietnamese and Cambodian perspective to try and balance the coverage by the broadcasting networks which tended to show only the United States involvement. Frontline has won numerous awards and was nominated for the 1981 Academy Award for best documentary.