Customer Reviews

One Crowded Hour (Oe): Neil Davis, Combat Cameraman

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This is a belated review of a biography of Neil Davis, the legendary Australian journalist who made his name as a video photographer in Southeast Asia and Africa.

The book, ONE CROWDED HOUR, NEIL DAVIS, COMBAT CAMERAMAN, 1934-1985, was published in Australia in 1987, two years after Davis's untimely death, and it has not, I believe, been published in America. It should have been, because the life story of Neil Davis describes a fabulous career that saw Davis cover major news events in the latter half of the 20th century, as both a TV cameraman and a journalist/writer.

The author of this review worked with Davis in Cambodia from 1973-75, and he holds the Australian in the highest esteem. He was not only a savvy journalist; he was truly a gentleman - a rarity amongst the foreign correspondent corps in Southeast Asia.

Davis died, tragically, on a Bangkok street in 1985 when he got caught in crossfire during one of the many coup attempts in Thailand. His death was a waste, in that it cut down the career of a journalist who was, perhaps, more plugged into the key players in the war in Vietnam and Cambodia - and later, briefly, in Africa. The book will also give some keen insights into the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Even though he faced a tragic death, we are fortunate that prior to Davis' death Tim Bowden had been planning to write Davis' biography, and he had met several times with the Australian cameraman in order to gather the material he needed to write ONE CROWDED HOUR. If you want to know what being a combat correspondent is like, then this book will more than fill the bill.

The first reviewer obviously has a bee in his bonnet about Western men and Asian women, and this appears to adversely color his or her review of a very fine book. Much of Bowden's exceptional work derives from his collecting data from Bowden's diaries and letters to his aunt, which Bowden arranges in thematically interesting chapters. There are gems, such as the description of the VC double agent on page 212 of my paperback edition (I know the agent). Overall, brilliant, insightful work by Bowden, on a remarkable character.

I was surprised at the lack of balance in the reviews of "One Crowd Hour". Neil Davis might have been a "typical Aussie bloke" but he was a typical Aussie bloke with lots of differences. Firstly, Davis did not share the racism of his "typical" fellow Australians: he only covered the Vietnamese troops and he said the Vietnam war was "their" war. Davis may have little to say about the Australian troops because he didn't cover the Australian troops. He only filmed the Vietnamese troops, and then the Cambodian troops, who did most of the fighting. Secondly, Davis worked for an international news agency so he was not in Vietnam to cover the Australian troops. Thirdly, to accuse Davis of not identifing with the Vietnamese and Cambodian people is plainly untrue and a smear on Davis's name. Davis refused to leave Vietnam and Cambodia when his employers wanted him out. He loved Cambodia and made that country his home. He only left Cambodia when the Khmar Rouge took over. Davis was recognized by his journalistic peers as an expert on the Vietnamese and Cambodian wars. How many cameramen write articles for magazines like the Far Eastern Economc review. After the war end, Davis remained in South East Asia. Davis greatest weakness in eyes of people like Ash Long is not his drinking with his mates or womenizing but his failure to endorse the left-wing position on the Vietnam War that meant supporting North Vietnam and the Khmar Rouge. Davis know enough about the war to be sceptical about the champions of the left. "One Crowd Hour" has become a classic of Australian biography. I recommend it because Davis was not a typical Australian: he did not show any of the racism that was SO typical of Australians in the sixties.

A curious life, a curious career for a most unusual Tasmanian and every page deeply interesting. Neil Davis clearly had a deep love for the region and people and his work at capturing the war shines through. Sometimes amusing, often sad, yet throughout it captures the madness of the time and place. An excellent read.

i was surprised at the critical review i just read. neil davis just lived life beyond what most of us would ever expect. most extraordinary lives are never perfect and do not go searching for the moral high road. he did more than i would ever hope for and in the circumstances did it well. one crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name. how many of us get that far much less do it right. he had courage and individuality that led him to experience history in the making - isnt that enough.

"Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife, Throughout the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name." -- Thomas Osbert Mordaunt

I enjoyed "One Crowded Hour" a lot, and re-read it a couple of times. It tells the story of an ordinary Australian bloke in extraordinary circumstances. For some 20 years Neil Davis covered the conflicts in South-East Asia. Always on the front line, he brought enduring images of the horror of modern warfare to the world's television screens. Davis was a man as honest about his faults as he was modest about his achievements.

To get the most out of this book you must read it with an open mind.

A biography of a famous Australian war correspondent. He died on the job in a mundane incident after surviving through all sorts of conflicts and chaos in the past. It details his life and the situations he was involved in, and a lot of it is taken from his own first hand accounts and records.

The 1979 documentary 'Frontline' by David Bradbury is better than the book 'One Crowded Hour'. Much more powerful. Brutal close combat footage taken by Davis. Pretty simple format but quite haunting.

The title should be changed to, "The Steve Irwin of wartime cameramen"

The book is filled with little substance. Just page by page bragging of what a baddass Neil Davis was......Davis could run a marathon, drink 25 beers and then shag a dozen Thai hookers.

In typical Australian prose Davis has non stop criticism for Americans and American policy in Southeast Asia.......but when it comes to Pol Pot and communism in Cambodia (the country and people that Davis most loved) a critical word is never mentioned. Davis and other Aussie greats like Wilfred Burchett have the blood of the 2 million people who died at the hands of Pol Pot on their hands.

This is a very self-serving book about the war in Vietnam compiled by Tim Bowden from tapes and letters written and narrated by Neil Davis. Davis was a combat cameraman who is often and (wrongly as the book points out) credited with some of the wars most memorable footage. The book was to be co-written by Bowden and Davis but sadly Davis was killed in a shoot-out in Thailand before the book was complete. The Bowden as the credited sole author does little research on his subject other then transcribe tapes Davis made on his life.

Davis life is interesting, but the book is not good research material for those wanting to find out what really happened in the Vietnam war. The book is mostly about singing Davis's praises as a great Aussie who drank lots and didn't really care too much. Davis seems to take little interest in the politics or personalties shaping the war. Instead he spent his time `drinking with his mates and chasing Asian Sheilas.'

Davis declines to give any insight into or information about on Australian soldier's behaviour. Sticking to "I saw nothing bad, I heard nothing bad" routine when talking about his fellow countrymen. Most of the book deals with the thrills of going into combat, cheating on his Asian wife and how he felt it was just one big thrill after another to be free from the western idea of right and wrong. Furthermore Davis's journalistic credibility goes completely out the window when we learn that part of the attraction of going into combat with the Asian soldiers was eating the enemy corpses.

Cannibalism was a fact that Davis said he intentionally hid and much indulged in at the time. In the end Davis was addicted to the thrill of war and the Asian women whom he saw as part of a big amusement park that he had fun with but little commitment too.