AustLit

'For over twenty years, from the early 1960s, Neil Davis brought enduring images of the full horror of modern war directly from the battlefront to the world's television screens. Davis's former colleague, Tim Bowden, tells the life story of this remarkable and complex cinecameramen and journalist - a cool, utterly dedicated professional, a legendary gambler who often relied on his intuitive sixth sense to stay alive, and a man who was equally at home with presidents and street beggars. It is for Davis' eleven years' coverage of the conflict in Indo-China that he is best remembered. He was the only western cameraman to film with the South Vietnamese army and once actually managed to cross over battle lines to film with the Viet Cong. Davis also covered the war in Cambodia and Laos. And in 1975 he scooped the world's press by filming the taking of Saigon's Presidential Palace - the moment that symbolised the American defeat. Ironically in September 1985, having survived so much war, Neil Davis was killed while filming an attempted coup in the streets of Bangkok. Incredibly his still-running camera captured his own death. ' (Publication summary)