ENTERTAINMENT WEDNESDAY 7 JUNE, BOOK LAUNCH: THE ARMOUR OF LIGHT: THE LIFE OF REVEREND DOCTOR BARRY MARSHALL BY NOLA FIRTH. LAUNCHED BY REV DR JOHN TYMAN. REGENT CINEMA MURWILLUMBAH, 6PM. FREE.
A PRIESTS STORY
The Rev Dr Barry Marshall predicted in the 1960s that if the church did not lose its complacency it would be irrelevant in a generation. Nola Firth has written a biography, The Armour of Light, about this truly remarkable Australian man equally at home as a Bush Brother in Bourke and as a scholar in Oxford.
Who was Reverend Doctor Barry Marshall and why did you decide to write a book about him? At the time of his tragic death in 1970 at age 47 in Oxford, Barry Marshall was probably the most well-known Anglican priest in Australia. An annual lecture is still held in his memory at Trinity College at the University of Melbourne. Barry predicted in the 1960s that if the church did not lose its complacency it would be irrelevant in a generation and he tried to remove that complacency. Born in Coolah, NSW, he was equally at home as a Bush Brother in Dubbo and Bourke as he was as a brilliant scholar in Oxford. A poem I wrote about Barry grew into a biography. I had known him when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Melbourne and he was chaplain at Trinity College. Even though I left the church and became involved in Zen Buddhism, I never forgot his example of total commitment to a spiritual life. The poem I wrote led me to further investigation and I found 13 archival boxes of material about him. Part of that was the raw material for a memorial book that had not been completed. I thought his story needed to be told. What were his most remarkable qualities? His most remarkable quality was his total commitment to his god. All those who knew him, even if they were sometimes annoyed at his style, were in no doubt of it. He was also the antithesis of pomposity. One of his theological students remembered that he was ‘an affront to the image of a dignified person’. His bubbling, enthusiastic presentations and his inclusion and welcoming of people who may have been at the edges of society were all memorable qualities. So was his original thought, his belief in the use of the rational mind, and his willingness to stand up for what he believed no matter how unpopular that might be. In a landscape where there are so many negative stories about the clergy, and the public seems to have lost their trust, why did you think this was an important story to tell? I do think it is an important story to tell because, despite the betrayals, there were also those within the Christian church who walked the talk of their faith no matter what the cost. Barry was an extraordinary example of such a man. I think too that many people are looking for meaning in life that goes beyond the current materialistic emphasis.
The level of depression, especially among young people, is of concern. As Hugh McKay points out in his recent book Beyond Belief, many people nowadays are very interested in the spiritual even if they have left organised religion. It is worth sharing the story that there was an Australian man who thoroughly lived the spiritual life through his Christian faith and, despite many difficulties, found it gave him joy. Also it is a good story – Barry’s life and personality are intrinsically interesting. What were the challenges of pulling a story like this together, particularly when it comes to authenticating someone’s life stories? I spent countless hours searching various archives in Melbourne, Bathurst, Dubbo, and Oxford. The challenge here was to find the relevant information within the time I had available. I quickly learned the absolute importance of keeping detailed records of where in the archives I had been working. Sometimes I didn’t realise I had found something until I accessed another piece of information and it could take hours to re-find the initial discovery. There was also the terror of setting up a reference, of which I had hundreds, and mistakenly using the wrong one or making a computer error that resulted in all the references moving one or more places so that all of them were wrong! Another challenge was learning Barry’s faults as well as his inspiring qualities, but eventually I realised his complexity made him the more interesting. I also had to find a way to keep track of the huge array of material I had collected and to synthesise it. My job then was to search therein for the essence of Barry Marshall and his life, to choose from the many examples, quotes from those who knew him, and excerpts from his own writings. To ensure the story remained accessible to all and to keep the language alive and flowing, many wonderful but esoteric or repetitive details and incidents had to be left out. Sometimes there were more than twenty drafts of a chapter; each one was shorter than the last. What should we expect for your launch at the Regent? The book has been written to be accessible and engaging for non-religious and Christians alike and is being launched therefore at The Regent rather than in a church. Rev Dr John Tyman, a long-term resident in the region and another priest and scholar who has endeavoured to live a radically Christian life and break down complacency in his church, will launch the book. I will also speak and read some excerpts from the book. Twenty per cent of book sales at the launch will go to Australians for United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The book is also available at local bookshops and at Readings and other online stores.
North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
BY JOHN CAMPBELL
KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD
The cinema experience these days, especially at blockbusters, is often akin to being seated in a feed-lot, as punters noisily stuff their faces with chips and popcorn – the bloke in front of me today brought a foul-stinking Subway sandwich with him! It was not a good start, and it didn’t take me long to realise that Guy Ritchie has done the same to the story of King Arthur as he did to Sherlock Holmes – he has trashed it. Out of curiosity, later on I watched RocknRolla (2008) again and found the stylistic similarities striking. The difference is the budget. Ritchie has gone from working with $18 million to having $175 million at his disposal, and if ever there were an example of somebody given too much lolly it can be observed in these two films. The earlier one is tight, cohesive and primarily concerned with plot and character. Arthur is all over the place like a mad woman’s breakfast, with enough indulgent gimmickry and CGI to sink the Battleship Potemkin.
Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) is a reluctant hero and his mates, who are destined to become the knights of the round table, all carry on like East End wide boys. The villain is Vortigern (Jude Law); his soldiers are the ‘black legs’ and under his command they lord it over the cowed populace. What is most disappointing is the complete absence of any sense of period. Not taking into account the anachronistic, smart-arse dialogue and the edit’s tricky jump cuts, the art direction is a mish-mash of design that fails to create any sense of the medieval. But I suppose if you grew up with Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations for Le Morte d’Arthur as the legend’s true image, Ritchie’s in-your-face approach was never going to be compatible. There is a nod to the pre-Raphaelites in the princess’s outfits, but Vortigern is dressed in a way to suggest that he is about to hit the bars in Oxford Street. And don’t get me started on the stupid giant serpent…
VICEROY’S HOUSE
There is just one little thing wrong with this movie – the casting. That Hugh Bonneville doesn’t look a bit like Louis Mountbatten is not nearly so distracting as the fact that (for many of us) he will forever be Lord Grantham from Downton Abbey. Nor might Edwina Mountbatten, his wife, have been quite so saintly as Gillian Anderson’s portrayal suggests, but writer/director Gurinda Chadha clearly has a soft spot for the couple and their commitment to the concept of ‘noblesse oblige’ in a film that is heartfelt and sumptuously mounted. Mountbatten was sent as viceroy to oversee India’s transformation from colony to republic in 1947.
What he didn’t know at the time of his arrival was that he would also be responsible for its partition, as Islamic Pakistan tore itself away from Hindustan. It was one of the bloodiest political evolutions of the twentieth century, resulting in countless thousands killed in riots, massacres and reprisals across the subcontinent. With this as her backdrop, Chadha tells the story of the inter-communal romance between Jeet (Manish Dayal) and Aalia (Huma Qureshi), a beautiful Moslem girl with whom he is reacquainted upon joining the viceroy’s staff in Delhi. The Capulet/Montague theme is a simple and generally failsafe device employed to explore how the ‘big picture’ impacts on the individual, its only drawback here being that it sometimes leads to a cheesiness that can reduce the very serious historical question to incidental status. For the most part, Chadha avoids this thanks to a screenplay that is concise without being overly complex, and evenhanded (although Muhammad Ali Jinnah, as always, comes across as a bit of villain). The pomp and ceremony of the Raj is beautifully recreated – hard to believe that a grown man would need two servants to dress him – and the intractable problem that had been sown by 300 years of haughty British rule exposed with a surprising lack of what may have been warranted unkindness. Archival footage is used to great effect, especially in the closing sequence.
Girls Night Out Preview Screening Wednesday 14th June 6.30pm arrival for a 7pm screening. All Tickets $25. Pre-Show snacks and Complementary Glass of Champagne on arrival served by Wicked Waiters.
The Byron Shire Echo May 24, 2017 35