Radio Australia Today Editorial

Ghost Town. A movie that reflects on death

26 February 2009

One of the richest sources of comedy in movies has always been death. Remember Four Weddings and a Funeral, which starts with Hugh Grant expletiving his way to a wedding that leads to a funeral. Or Death at a Funeral, where Jane Asher’s dead gay husband’s body is rolled out of a coffin in a surreal slip of slaptick. Or the much less funny Weekend at Bernie’s, which has, as its major plot device, two youths carrying around a coprse for most of the screen time. Or Corpse Bride. Or any one of the very many other taboo-busting renditions of the end of a hapless person’s life.

The latest in this line is the Ricky Gervais flick, Ghost Town, which really is hilarious. It’s built on the premise that Gervais’ character, Dr Pincus, died on the operating table for seven minutes. Because of this he has the ability to see the ghost of people who have died with issues unresolved.

So we thought we’d look at death. Today we speak with a doctor about when we actually die. You might’ve thought that after seven minutes Dr Pincus has well and truly shuffled off his mortal coil. Does death come with the brain stopping, the heart stopping or the spirit looking down on the body (as depicted for the Pincus character at one stage).

The now-dead Kerry Packer, once Australia’s richest man, once survived being clinically dead of a massive heart attack , and claims that he went across to the other side, and his famous quote was something like: “I’ve been dead, and I can tell you, there’s nothing there.”  Many others including my own mother-in-law, tell a different story. She was clinically dead for some time, and later told of white lights, dead relatives and an amazing feeling of joy.

The hindus say that life is virtually unending; that we just keep changing our bodies as we try to sort out our karma as we go from incarnation to incarnation. Sort of like Dr Who, except the good doctor keeps changing actors with each incarnation.

We really want to know your stories.

                                      – Phil