The Journalist

This must be the worst Aussi flick I've ever had the misfortune to see. Full of well known Australian actors and it's my bet they cringe with embarrassment whenever this movie is mentioned. It's our Ishtar. Dustin Hoffman once said, "everbody has an Ishtar" and boy was he right the only difference with 'The Journalist' is that it includes practically all of our popular Australian actors whereas Ishtar belongs to two men, Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beattie. The movie reminds me of a time in Australia when we were desperately attempting to find ourselves some sort of cultural identity. We didn't like to be seen as ockers so we attempted to project some sort of pseudo intellectual sophisticate image which was as transparent as glass. It's totally unintentional but the Journalist gives an insight into what we were like during the seventies, bumping around in the dark trying to find ourselves and if we're lucky we might find our way out of the darkness. Taken at face value the movie fails miserably at whatever it's trying to express probably because the producers didn't really know what they were attempting in the first place. Taken from the viewpoint of someone who was coming of age in the seventies it's successful at showing just how lost we were during those adolescent times giving us a real sense of relief when we realize that it's all over, we're no longer searching. We've found ourselves and although we don't like everything we see at least we know where we should be heading as Australians in the twenty first century. With that in mind, it is worth a look.