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Chopper
**
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Cornerhouse (Manchester)
Released in the UK by Metrodome on November 24, 2000; certificate 18; 94
minutes; country of origin Australia; aspect ratio 1.85:1
Directed by Andrew Dominik; produced by
Michele Bennett.
Written by Andrew Dominik; based on books by Mark Brandon
Read.
Photographed by Geoffrey Hall, Kevin Hayward; edited by Ken
Sallows.
CAST.....
Eric Bana..... Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read
Simon Lyndon..... Jimmy Loughnan
David Field..... Keithy George
Dan Wyllie..... Bluey
Bill Young..... Detective Downey
Vince Colosimo..... Neville Bartos
Kenny Graham..... Keith Read
"Chopper" is one of the most perplexing
movies ever made, forcing us to stare at the screen in states of amazement,
involvement, amusement, disgust, concern and anger. Granting it a star rating
is one of the most pointless tasks a film critic could imagine. Awarding
it the halfway mark of two out of four is the closest I can get to not making
a judgement.
The picture is a study of a real-life Australian
criminal named Mark Brandon Read (Eric Bana), nicknamed 'Chopper' for cutting
off his ears in prison, who started publishing books in 1991 detailing his
experiences as a crook. Read has only ever been tried for one murder, but
he has confessed to approximately twenty, and in this film we see him shiv
fellow inmates in stir, shoot old criminal acquaintances for refusing to
lend him money, leaving his girlfriend's family for dead, and gunning down
strangers in the car park of a nightclub.
What are we seeing? Sometimes the techniques of
the editor make clear we're witnessing fantasy, recollection, the filmmakers'
theories on what might have happened in certain instances, or Read's own
accounts of them. Most of the time we have no idea. The film moves ahead
in generally linear progression, as in a regular narrative, so we never know
what device is being employed, because everything's lumped in together. Dreams,
reality, fallacy… all tumbling out at once without reason or explanation.
"Chopper" is constantly in a state of narrative limbo. Scenes contradict
each other -- at one point, for example, the police tell Read not to go round
committing crimes in the name of the police. Later, the scene is continued,
and the police ignore his confessions to crimes. Or is it the same scene?
See what I mean?
The Read character breaks into apology after attack,
shouts "Look what you've made me do now!" when laying into his girlfriend,
is paranoid, malicious, and flies off the handle randomly. He outsmarts people
intelligently at some points, rambles illogical garbage at others, can stand
outside his psychotic state or fall victim to it. This unpredictable behaviour,
and the strange hypercolour grain of Geoffrey Hall's cinematography, makes
an aura of unease and fear hang over the content in general, but sometimes
Read's idiocy goes so far it's plain silly, and the audience is invited to
darkly laugh. How do the filmmakers want us to react? What's the
point?
I fear that there may be none. I give the movie
credit for involving me and making me react in many moments, but I don't
think that the writer and director, Andrew Dominik, had a clear purpose for
telling this tale. He read Mark Brandon Read's books and thought, ooh, this
would look really striking on a cinema screen.
Whether Read's tales are true or not, nobody will
ever know. Either way, the guy has more than a couple of screws loose. His
cult hero status among certain groups of Australian society is disturbing,
and "Chopper" is not a wakeup call about it -- it's a thoughtless crime drama
that will end up being another piece of merchandise for the sad, sick 'Chopper'
devotees.
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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