Hey folks, Harry here with a film that noone heard of before. APparently there is a film called CHOPPER that was shown last night in Australia and it was utterly good, and McFrenzy says we will here much more about it in the future... but for now... this is the word, and the word is good....
Ok Harry, here it is, my first story for AICN. I was lucky enough to be invited to a test\advanced screening of a new Australian movie last night, and was compelled afterwards to write up a summary of my thoughts. Although it will probably be a while before you guys in America get to see it, believe me when I say that this is not the last you will hear about “Chopper”. Anyway, here’s the story, I don’t know if you should bother about putting this in an “Ausie AICN” section, as it is unlikely I’ll get the chance to regularly chace up any film goss from my little corner of the globe, but I’ll leave that in your capable hands.
“Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction”, and in the case of “Chopper”, the new Australian movie depicting the life of one of our most infamous criminals, this statement sums it all up. We’re told from the beginning that this isn’t another “Bio-Pic,” that events have been changed to make a compelling story rather than a factual account of Chopper Reeds life. How fitting this is for a tale about a man who has risen to a cult status by selling highly exaggerated books about his feats of crime.
Mark Brandon Read was bourn in one of Melbourne’s northern suburbs in 1954. His father was a war-stressed soldier, and his mother was a strict Seventh Day Adventist. He was first arrested at the age of 17, and has spent 23 years of his life behind bars on charges of shootings, stabbing, assault and arson. He rose to fame in 1991 when in one of his brief times out of prison he wrote the now famous book, “From the inside” which has topped sales of over 300,000 copies. This book is filled with tales of greatly exaggerated crime and became the inspiration for writer and director Andrew Dominik to write a script on his exploits.
Dominik, spent many years researching and rewriting the controversial script, and was constantly confronted with opposition to the film every step of the way. It became clear that the basis of the film be shifted from a “romp through the crime world”, to focus on the personality of the real Chopper beyond the “Australia’s number 1 hit man” persona that was the image presented in his books.
“Chopper” stars Eric Bana, a renowned Australian comic, who shows that his grasp for the dramatic is as strong as his comical abilities, and indeed both skills are needed in this offbeat movie.
Unlike other movies of a similar vain such as “Natural Bourn Killers,” about the portrayal of murderers who’s actions gain the attention of the media, “Chopper” doesn’t glorify the criminal world, nor does it hold any punches.
I recently saw “Three Kings” for the first time, and at the start was a warning that certain cinematic methods such as un-naturalistic lighting and other film techniques were used to heighten the mood of certain scenes, and if “Chopper” ever makes it to the U.S, they will need to put a similar warning at the start of the film.
The directors of photography, Geoffrey Hall and Kevin Hayward make use of a variety of different film stock and methods that emphasises many scenes, giving this world that Chopper lives in a strange hyper-reality that leaves you unsettled perhaps more so than the excessive amount of gore.
Did I mention the gore yet? Well if this movie gets past the MMPA as I saw it, I’ll be a dead dog’s donger. If you think having seen “The Shawshank Redemption” has taught you all you need to know about prison life, think again. And if the sight of a man being stabbed 10 times by his best friend doesn’t make you squirm, then the same guy getting his ears chopped off will.
But don’t let me put you off, this isn’t a movie that sets out to be an instructional video on the human anatomy, this is a story about a confused young man in prison, and how the psychological stress of such an environment can affect an already unbalanced mind.
This film challenges you to look beyond the man we think we know as Chopper, the one that he and the media painted of him; the ruthless, remorseless torturer, and hopefully see beneath that to a frail, apologetic man, driven more by paranoia and fear than any evil desire.
In the end, this movie is as much a contradiction as the man it is about. At the same time you see a brutal murder you will find yourself laughing uncontrollably. At the same time you are shocked by the ferocious nature of Chopper, you find you laugh along with his story and empathise with his plight.
“Chopper” is not a movie I would take my Grandmother to see, but nonetheless it is a movie I can’t wait to see again. If you are in Australia, see this movie now, and if you are in the states, start writing letters to your President to get it there fast.
Ok, that’s all I have to say right now, I’ll see you freaks and geeks later.
“McFrenzy” signing off.