Rest in Peace David Stratton: A 5-Star Life
One of Australia’s most beloved movie critics has passed. Best known as one half of Australia’s film critic duo of The Movie Show and At the Movies with Margaret Pomeranz, David Stratton graced our screens every week to let us know which movies to run to (or avoid). With this long-running show, all his work as the Sydney Film Festival director, and his various books on Australian cinema, he was instrumental in bringing foreign films over to Australia and making Australian films known to the wider world.
Described as Australia’s answer to Siskel and Ebert, David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz started The Movie Show on SBS in 1986, immediately establishing themselves as the key voices on Australian film culture on TV. They switched to the ABC in 2004, under the new name At the Movies, where Australians would tune in to see if this pair were in (dis)agreement on a film and what star rating they’d give them—a 5-star rating was as exciting to see as a no-star rating. Their review of Dancer in the Dark was them at their most divisive, with Pomeranz giving the film five stars, whereas Stratton gave it no stars.
At the Movies came to an end in 2014, with the final review being of Birdman (which they both awarded 5 stars to). But David didn’t retire from film criticism here, continuing to do reviews for The Weekend Australian, writing a few books on the films he loves, and even making video reviews of new releases for Luna Cinemas.
He has given great detail into his life of loving movies as a child in Britain during the war, when he’d spend almost every afternoon at the cinema with his grandma. He detailed these in his autobiography, ‘I Peed on Fellini’ (there hasn’t been a better title for a film-related biography, and he really did pee a little on acclaimed Italian director Federico Fellini), as well as in the brilliant documentary on his life and career, David Stratton’s Stories of Australian Cinema.
His other books brought to print the list of Australian films made since the advent of the Australian New Wave, writing The Last New Wave in 1980, The Avocado Plantation in 1990, and Australia at the Movies in 2022. With these three books, he reviewed just about every Australian film made between 1970 and 2020—it’s unlikely that anyone else has even come close to writing about as many Australian films.
Given the way David Stratton cared so much to archive all the Australian films coming out (even if he didn’t like them), the same kind of attention to conservation should be regarded for his work. A few seasons of The Movie Show episodes appear to be on SBS On Demand, though actual individual reviews used to be there but unfortunately have been removed (or are just impossible to find). But the situation is more dire for At the Movies, which would post their episodes on the ABC website, but most of these have been lost. Now is the time for both stations to do such an important man for their channels justice and upload every single review that was made for the show.
David could sure be grumpy with his criticisms, getting adamant about certain points, and sometimes showed his particular grievances with certain films (he wasn’t a fan of the Bourne movies and their incessant shaky cam). But that’s why we loved him. He was completely true to his opinions and absolutely refused to be swayed in any way in his reviews. He’s an irreplaceable part of film criticism in this country, and his multiple achievements will be felt in Australia forever.
Rest In Peace David Stratton, 1939-2025