Alternative Entrances: Phillip Noyce and Sydney’s Counterculture

Abstract

[Extract] Phillip Noyce is one of Australia's most prominent film makers - a successful feature film director with both iconic Australian narratives and many a Hollywood blockbuster under his belt. Still, his beginnings were quite humble and far from his role today when he grew up in the midst of the counterculture of the late sixties. Millions of young people his age joined the various 'movements' of the day after experiences that changed their lives-mostly music but also drugs or fashion. The counterculture was a turbulent time in Sydney artistic circles as elsewhere. Everything looked possible, you simply had to "Do It!" - and Noyce did. He dived head-on into these times and with a voracious appetite for its many aspects-film, theatre, rallies, music, art and politics in general. In fact he often was the driving force behind such activities.