One Crowded Hour (Tim Bowden) and Highways to A War (Christopher Koch) are twin stars that will eternally dance around each other. Without one, you don't have the other.
'He did the dirty on me.'
I know, he used your book as the blueprint for his book.
'He ripped off the 'Fall of Saigon', word for word.'
It wasn't the only thing he ripped off, word for word.
But where you wrote a great biography, which never translates well on film, Koch wrote a novel that has all the ingredients that film demands.
No one was fooled that Mike Langford was a composite of many characters.
'It was Neil Davis, he stole him from my book.'
He created art from your book.
And One Crowded Hour may never reach a movie theatre.
But with Highways to A War, it would be a filmmaker's dream.
However, Out of Ireland may stand out as his novel. The one he wanted us most to read.
Tim Bowden was given the tip of the hat with Highways to A War, but Out of Ireland, and in some regards, The Year of Living Dangerously, see Koch at his most original, only relying upon his imagination.
'And plagiarism.'
That too, Tim.
Highways to A War was written with guilty pleasure.
That it hasn't been made into a movie yet is a shame.
'We were both robbed of a movie.'
The legend of Neil Davis hasn't ever been so bright.
It would sadden him to know that his life was so coveted by fellow Tasmanians and long-standing friendships broken by it.
'Just ain't cricket, 'he'd say at the Grand Prix bar in Patpong, 'so lighten up, drink up your beers, and I'll shout you both a hooker if you can reconcile your professional differences.'
In Frontline, a documentary on Neil Davis by David Bradbury that was nominated for the Academy Awards, most of the good stuff was left out. It happens when you force an opinion on someone. And when it's not reflected back, the filmmaker gets his revenge.
Never the case with Koch and Bowden, they were faithful scribes and both successfully immortalized Neil Davis to that divine status of combat cameraman.
