BARRY JONES IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME – A LIFE IN FILM

Australia, 2018, 124 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Garry Sturgess.

Writer-director, Garry Sturgess, was interested in labour politics and made some documentaries. He was attracted to the character and personality of Barry Jones.

Barry Jones has spent decades in the Australian consciousness. A precocious boy, he appeared as a young adult on the very popular initial question on television, Bob Dyers Pickabox. He appeared on over 200 sessions, being stopped in the street at that time and afterwards because he was such a popular identity, answering all the questions – and even questioning the questions.

During the 1960s, after abandoning studies in law, he headed up a committee against capital punishment. This organisation and Barry Jones himself were very prominent in their campaigns and in their arguments against the Premier of Victoria, Sir Henry Bolte, a fierce, often aggressive, supporter of such punishment. This came to a head with the last man hanged in Victoria, Ronald Ryan, in 1967, Bolte attacking Barry Jones and Jones resigning from the committee because, he said, he did not want to be paid by the same fund that paid Bolte.
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Barry Jones became a Labour member of Parliament and was Minister for Science for most of the 1980s in the Hawke Government. Once again, he became well-known from his points of view, his media communications, his innovative approaches.

All this might make for a cinema portrait-biography, but there is much more to this film which makes it all the more interesting – and most especially for film buffs.

Barry Jones proves himself an avid film fan, listing his favourite films at the beginning of this film. However, he and Sturgess have chosen quite a large number of film clips, mainly from American films but from the UK, France and beyond. So the title, where an 84-year-old Barry Jones is being interviewed about his recollections of times past, with each comment accompanied by a clip in the background, sometimes in the foreground, illustrating his particular perspective. And quite a range it is, from Buster Keaton to Citizen Kane to Psycho and, with his love for the writings of Marcel Proust, Time Regained. There are a number of clips from the film, Quiz Show, an expose of cheating on American quiz shows which enables him to reflect on his own experiences.

While there is a great deal about Barry Jones and his family, a Victorian, life in Melbourne, Caulfield, Geelong, there is practically nothing on his private life after he emerges as a public figure.

Jones is a Renaissance man and there is quite some emphasis throughout the film on his love of music, visual art, literature (also well illustrated). Newspapers figure as well with quite a number of highlights of headlines and articles. And, at the end, he has reflections on the meaning of life, and admiration for Jesus and his being outgoing towards others, as well as a victim of capital punishment.

Audiences will appreciate having a portrait of Barry Jones but many will relish the objective/subjective correlatives of the film clips, his film story.


1. Barry Jones and his reputation? Esteem? A portrait of him in his mid 80s? Renaissance man, of the 20th century, into the 21st century? In Australia?

2. The subtitle, venturing back into the past, the lost time? A film story, the device of the range of clips, Barry Jones’s list, his comments on movies, the vast range of clips, illustrating his thoughts, feelings, opinions? Serving as objective/subjective co-relatives to his views and his story?

3. The range of music, Barry Jones and his appreciation of music, the excerpts? The musicians admired, conductors, violinists? Recordings?

4. His appreciation of literature, his vast reading, the influence of Marcel Proust, the clips of Time Regained?

5. Visual arts, the range of paintings?

6. The portrait of Jones himself, the fractured portrait, the Archibald prize?

7. The influence of radio in the 1930s and 40s, his own radio interviews and presence?

8. His valuing of newspapers, the film using newspaper headings and articles?

9. Television, his own presence on Pickabox, interactions with Bob Dyer, even questioning the questions? His exploration of audience response to these quizzes? The American case of Charles Van Doren and the scenes from Quiz Show?

10. Barry Jones as a media person, the focus of the media, his being inspired by the media, communication by the media, his use of the media for this film?

11. The portrait, the device of the date of his birth and references to all other characters plus or minus his birth date? The world perspective? Connection with world events and movements?

12. His family, his father, military service, the distance from him, taking him for granted? His accidental death? The strong presence of his mother? Grandmothers and aunts? A Victorian person, Melbourne, Geelong, Caulfield? His education? Reading as a child, writing? At school, at 11 and his reading? Religious interests? His expectations, studying law, his revulsion of capital punishment, his beginning to study law but giving it up?

13. His Labor perspective, issues, capital punishment and the committee, heading it, the various cases of the 1960s, Ronald Ryan, Sir Henry Bolte, his confronting Bolte? Bolte’s resentments? His interest in politics, standing for the Labor Party, Minister for science in the 1980s? His references to Labor personalities?

14. His life in the quiz show, with Bob Dyer and Dolly, his knowledge, cheeky interjections, confidence, over 200 appearances, the trip to America, not on an American quiz?

15. His philosophy, his search for the meaning of life?

16. Religious perspective, admiration of Christianity in the Gospels, art with Jesus and Mary images? The scenes in Jesus of Montréal? Seeing Jesus as an ideal? A victim of
capital punishment?

17. Barry Jones and his age, his reflections on death and preparation?

18. The portrait of an admirable person?