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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz taught us an invaluable lesson — they showed us exactly how to disagree - ABC Religion & Ethics
When David Stratton — critic, television presenter and hero to a generation of movie lovers — died last week at the age of 85, he was immediately honoured as one of this country's true soldiers of cinema: an untiring advocate who spent his life championing the artform he loved. Cinema had a loyal, passionate and fiercely intelligent friend in David Stratton. He was a man who worked hard to make loving movies seem serious and worthwhile — so much more than just a hobby. But over the course of his long and varied career, Stratton didn't just kindly, patiently and honestly explain his passions. Along with his on-screen co-host Margaret Pomeranz, he also taught us a deeply valuable ethical lesson, time and time again: a lesson in the fine art of disagreement. Nothing so trite as 'let's agree to disagree' David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz were, from the very start of their time together, opposites. Pomeranz — who began her career in television as a producer and was encouraged to move in front of the camera by Stratton — prized a curiously outrageous form of entertainment far more than Stratton. Stratton loved to laugh, make no mistake, but he drew a line at anything he considered tacky. Pomeranz, by contrast, loved that stuff. When they butted heads, it was over films like Team America: World Police (Pomeranz loved it; Stratton hated it) and Sex and the City 2 (Pomeranz said it contained a 'jacket she'd kill for' and gave it three stars; Stratton called it 'offensive'). Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton arrive at the world premiere of 'Little Fish' as part of the opening of the Melbourne International Film Festival at the Village City Centre on 20 July 2005 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Kristian Dowling / Getty Images) These differences in opinion weren't just a casual 'let's agree to disagree' partings of ways. Once, memorably, Pomeranz gave Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark five stars, while Stratton gave it none. When Pomeranz stood up for Vin Diesel, a performer Stratton hated, Stratton lightly poked fun at her, saying she wanted Diesel to 'save her'. Possibly their biggest disagreement was over the classic Australian film Romper Stomper , starring Russell Crowe as a wild-eyed neo-Nazi. Stratton not only thought the film was terrible, he thought it was actively ethically harmful. Pomeranz gave it five stars. Sometimes these disagreements got a little heated. Stratton could be dismissive, and Pomeranz seemed occasionally exasperated with him. But the pair never lost respect for one another, no matter how far apart their tastes pulled them — and, importantly, they never started throwing barbs at each other . Their disagreement was focused on the thing they were disagreeing about, and did not descend into ad hominem snipes at the other's character. Pomeranz herself acknowledged this in a recent tribute written to honour her friend and colleague: I think it's extraordinary that, over all the time that David and I worked together, we never had a falling out. Minor disagreements maybe, and maybe more spirited ones on air, but it was a relationship of deep respect — certainly of me for him, maybe a little bit less of him for me — and of deep friendship. The power of disagreement Sometimes disagreement is cast as an impediment to societal functioning. We can all be guilty of occasionally speaking as though disagreement is the enemy — as though for us to all flourish, we should all get along, all the time. But the history of philosophy shows us there is power in sometimes parting opinion. Plato, for instance, presented almost all of his arguments in the form of debates, with characters going back and forth among each other as to what constitutes the best way to live. Plato's 'dialogues' — and thus his entire ethical worldview — were fashioned out of disagreement. Detail of 'The School of Athens' (circa 1510–1512), a mural by Raphael painted for Pope Julius II, at the Vatican. On the left, Plato engages in dialogue with Aristotle. (Photo by Independent Picture Service / Universal Images Group via Getty Images) It is through disagreement that we get to honour one of the truly beautiful things about our world: the differences, uniqueness and full richness of human experience. It would be a very boring, perhaps even insidious, world if we all thought the same thing. After all, a forced unity of opinion is one of the hallmarks of fascism. Disagreements, if conducted well, can also guide us away from extremes. In some matters, truth lies in between two poles. So it went on The Movie Show , at least — I am not convinced we always agreed with our favourite from the pair. As viewers, our own tastes fluctuated between the extremes of Pomeranz and Stratton. In their disagreements, we could pick and choose elements of their tastes and construct our own. Again, these were debates that never descended into name calling or anger. In this, Pomeranz and Stratton taught us another ethical lesson — that we can treat someone who disagrees with us as someone offering us kindness. Having to justify and argue for our own positions helps us better understand them. And it helps us better understand the world around us — indeed, the people around us. Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton attend the 'At The Movies' farewell party on 2 December 2014 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Caroline McCredie / Getty Images) Laying my own cards on the table, I've always been more of a Pomeranz person: I love von Trier, Romper Stomper and Team America . But that's just the thing. No matter how much I, as a viewer raised watching The Movie Show on SBS, found myself grumpily disagreeing with Stratton, it never made me dislike him . And when he passed, the loss I felt was not just the loss of a man I had always admired. It was the loss of a defender of art and a good sparring partner — no matter that it was one-sided sparring, through the television screen. Disagreement done well is a gift. And no one more generously held out that gift than David Stratton. Joseph Earp is a poet, journalist and philosophy student. He is currently undertaking his PhD at the University of Sydney, studying the work of David Hume. An earlier version of this article was published by The Ethics Centre.
SBS Australia
an hour ago
- SBS Australia
SBS Gujarati Australian update: 20 August 2025
SBS Gujarati is a part of SBS South Asian, the destination channel for all South Asians living in Australia. Tune in to SBS Gujarati live on Wednesdays and Fridays at 2pm on SBS South Asian on digital radio, on channel 305 on your television, via the SBS Audio app or stream from our website . You can also enjoy programs in 10 South Asian languages, plus SBS Spice content in English. It is also available on SBS On Demand.
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
Nowhere to hide: Australia exposed by Smith retirement
It's no coincidence that Australia's hiding by South Africa in Cairns was their first ODI since the retirement of Steve Smith. In conditions that were momentarily tricky against the wily left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj, Australia showed absolutely no ability to adapt to a newish ball spinning off a tacky surface, when they needed only to get through four or so overs for the drop and bite to diminish. That adaptability and thought were hallmarks of Smith's ODI career, finding ways to work with the ebb and flow of a 50-over game to make the runs required. Last time Australia played games up in Cairns, a 3-0 thumping of New Zealand in 2022, Smith was a star on a series of similarly testy surfaces, scoring his runs at a relatively sedate pace but playing the situation with mastery. But without him this time, after Smith elected to hang up his one-day kit and go play in the Hundred in England instead, the batting line-up looked dispiritingly gullible when pitted against Maharaj. He spun a web as thick as that conjured up by Shane Warne against South Africa in a famous World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston in 1999. Marnus Labuschagne, ostensibly there to take Smith's role, misread the length and was beaten by turn to be lbw, the 14th occasion on which a left-arm spinner had got him in an ODI. Cameron Green was similarly outfoxed to lose his off stump, and Josh Inglis – a noted player of spin – was nowhere to a quicker delivery that skidded through. Alex Carey's first-ball sweep was misjudged, and Aaron Hardie contrived for a near action replay of Green's dismissal. Maharaj's spell of destruction reduced the Australians to 6-89, having been 0-60 just nine overs before. That captain Mitchell Marsh and number eight Ben Dwarshuis were then able to play Maharaj with few dramas, in a game-prolonging stand of 71, only enhanced the sense of worry about what had just transpired.
