David Stratton's iconic reviews throughout his film career, from favourites to 'scathing' critiques

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For a film critic juggernaut like David Stratton, movies were not just his career — it was at his very core.
For decades he was staple for Australian audiences, reviewing silver screen features alongside Margaret Pomeranz on various movie review shows.
NOTE: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the name and image of a person who has died. The late actor's family has granted permission to use his name and image.
His family announced his death on Thursday afternoon, saying he died peacefully in hospital near his Blue Mountains home.
He was 85.
Prior to his death, Stratton said his obsession with film came from his grandmother.
"Monday to Friday, four times a week [we went to the cinemas]," he said in an interview with Margaret Throsby on ABC's Special Features.
"It was everything … There's something about the smell of a cinema. I love the still photographs, the posters outside."
The renowned film critic reviewed tens of thousands of movies during his illustrious career, but even he had his favourites.
Asked many times over the decades to rank his all-time winners, the beloved film critic often admitted his cherished top pics would be in the hundreds.
In 2010 Stratton published his book My Favourite Movies, where he reviewed and dissected his personal favourites from the last century.
Above all was the 1952 classic romantic comedy and musical — Singin' in the Rain, directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen.
"I've seen Singin' In the Rain — I don't know — 50 or 60 times," Stratton told Desert Island Flicks at ACMI in March 2010.
He recounted meeting Gene Kelly at a screening of the film in Sydney, and then being invited to visit him at home while on a visit to Los Angeles.
A champion of Australian film and theatre, Stratton's all-time favourites included many homegrown movies.
Newsfront, released in 1978, centred around a newsreel cameraman threatened by the onset of television in post-war Australia.
"Newsfront is my number 1," Stratton told Screen Australia.
"And it always has been — ever since I first saw it and I saw it in a rough cut."
He described the 1975 film Picnic at Hanging at Rock as "an extraordinary revelation" and a huge critical and commercial success.
Set on Valentine's Day in 1900 at an exclusive girl's school, the haunting tale has been retold across stage and screen in the decades since its release.
The 2005 drama Good Night and Good Luck is set during the early days of broadcast journalism in the USA in the 1950s, and stars George Clooney.
"The film beautifully evokes the early days of television, but though it's in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message," Stratton said in a review.
Both he co-host and Pomeranz gave the movie five stars.
The 2013 Australian drama Charlie's Country, which stars the late legendary actor David Gulpilil, was another of Stratton's favourites.
"I think Charlie's Country makes me cry every time I see it," Stratton told Screen Australia.
"The scene where Gulpilil's hair is cut, is the most moving scene in any Australian film. I think it's so sad. And it's so important that film."
Stratton was not afraid to be scathing in his reviews where necessary.
He described Paul Hogan's Western comedy film Lightning Jack, released in 1994, as "feeble, slapstick", giving the film just one-and-half stars.
In reference to another of Hogan's films — the latter instalments of Crocodile Dundee — Stratton said "one of Hogan's best friends should have advised him not to make [it]".
Perhaps his biggest shift from the culture, was his review of the 1997 Australian classic, The Castle.
"I'm afraid it wasn't for me, Margaret," he told his co-star on At The Movies.
"I thought it was patronising towards its characters, I didn't find it funny."
He added: "It's very rough [technically]. I'd give it one and half [stars]."
Twenty seven years later, he told The Daily Telegraph he had seen The Castle in years since and said, "I appreciate it much more".
There were some films that were not worth a single star in Stratton's expert view.
Of the 2012 American teen comedy Project X, Stratton said "it is not a film made for mature audiences", and he took aim at the plot line's "sexist" tone.
As for 2005 horror film Hostel, Stratton described it as a "squalid" production of "gloating ugliness".
Reflecting on his film critiques to ABC Radio Melbourne in 2024, he said: "I don't enjoy being scathing. I want to be honest."
"I love them [movies], and I have always loved them, all my life. There seems to be a certain lack of inspiration, ideas in films."
In the wake of news of Stratton's death, ABC managing director Hugh Marks reflected on Stratton's "extraordinary career".
"Incredible insight, a love of the craft of movie making and a respect for his audience, David was a credit to our industry.
"He made an enormous contribution to the ABC that we will remember fondly."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: "All of us who tuned in to 'At the Movies' respected him for his deep knowledge and for the gentle and generous way he passed it on. May he rest in peace."