Death of Azaria Chamberlain - Media and Cultural Impact

Media and Cultural Impact

The story has been the subject of several books, films and television shows, and other publications and accounts. John Bryson's book Evil Angels was published in 1985, and in 1988, Australian film director Fred Schepisi adapted the book into a feature of the same name (released as A Cry in the Dark outside of Australia and New Zealand). It starred Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain and Sam Neill as Michael Chamberlain. The film gave Streep her eighth Academy Award nomination and her first AFI award. In 2002 Lindy, an opera by Moya Henderson, was produced by Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House. The story was dramatised as a TV miniseries, Through My Eyes (2004), with Miranda Otto and Craig McLachlan as the Chamberlains. This miniseries was based on Lindy Chamberlain's book of the same name.

The incident was transmuted from tragedy to morbid comedy material for American shows such as Seinfeld and The Simpsons and "became deeply embedded in American pop culture" serving as "a punchline probably remember hearing before knew exactly what a dingo was."

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