imperfection is perfection
Sporadic film reviews by a wanna-be filmmaker
AUSSIE CLASSICS: CHOPPER [2000]
Originally written as a bite-sized review for THOMAS J: My Journey Through Film, aka digitalshortbread.com
If you haven’t seen Chopper, watch it.
A movie that will forever linger in your brain, it is also perhaps the quintessential Aussie film, a preservation of the ‘occa’ culture that is sadly suffering a slow death chiefly due to political reasons whose details that are best saved for another day.
‘Taking the piss’, insulting your mates for laughs over a barbeque, the almost dead notion of mateship between every person – friend or stranger, not to mention the very black humour that is the name of the game in this dramatised biopic, are all represented in this eccentric barrel of laughs. Of course though, there are much more demented themes on show, but even these somehow render Chopper the embodiment of our laid back culture and its unique sense of humour – perhaps most funniest when old Chop-Chop shoots a man, only to drive him to the hospital immedietely afterwards.
A noticeably beefed up Eric Bana plays the larger than life character in a career best performance. It wasn’t long before this that he was limited to Australian TV soaps. It is hard to see this fact given the almost scary depiction of a legitimate maniac.
It is worth repeating that this essential Australian cinema; if you haven’t seen it, I envy you: if only I could go all Men In Black on myself and wipe the memory of all the viewings so I could see it for a first time again myself. I remember where I was and who I was with when I first saw this. It’s that type of movie. Or perhaps my sense of humour is too demented for its own good.
Bana truly inhibits the character of Mark ‘Chopper’ Read, an often psychotic Australian vigilante and ‘legendary criminal’ who was responsible for an unknown amount of deaths. He claims the number is 19, but he was only tried for one attempted murder, a charge he beat before moving on to become a best-selling writer while in prison for other criminal activity. A best-seller, as he laughs, “who can’t even bloody spell”.
During his first venture into crime he would assault drug-dealers, the scourge of the earth in his opinion, often using torture to force more money out of them. Apparently he was fond of blowtorches and bolt-cutters. He took a step up when he decided take on the criminal underworld of Melbourne. Unsurprisingly, he went about this violently.
All up, the guy is what I’d call a bloody good bloke.
For a 94 minute film, Chopper has a truly (and literally) insane amount of action, blood, and thoroughly memorable scenes with quotes that will stick. There is no bloated, two hour-plus slog to be found here, this is efficient filmmaking done right and a direct result of this is that the violent impact is maximised.
We first visit Chopper in prison, where the humourous nature of the film is quickly established, despite the fact than an ear is removed from its owner not far from the beginning. But even this scene is quite funny in how the script has been written.
Soon the violent criminal underworld becomes the principle backdrop, Bana constantly on-screen. His immensely dramatised depiction of Mark Read, coupled with the true to life unpredictable and violent personality of the subject, is a big reason why this flick is so goddamned unrelenting yet hilarious.
Its impossible to know what this crazy bastard is going to do next, but you can be pretty sure that it will include some form of violence. But thanks to a top-notch screenplay, involving Chop’s wild mood swings that funnily enough could be described as violent themselves, quieter scenes possess the same intimidating-as-all-hell feeling. Even if you’re laughing.
Mark Read was one of a kind, and there is no doubt that the
film is too – how dramatised his personality is portrayed though is an unknown. One could compare Chopper to Winding Refn’s Bronson in some ways: the black humour, the violence, the notoriety of the subject. But even with this comparison, the differences outweigh the similarities. Chopper is arguably the best Australian film of decade (and no, Fury Road doesn’t count) and every cinephile should add it to their watchlist, if only to see Eric Bana play a part unlike anything else he has done. That and, well, as mentioned, it couldn’t be more Aussie in every conceivable way.
5 and a half beers out a sixer.
5.5/6
19 Comments on “AUSSIE CLASSICS: CHOPPER [2000]”
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imperfection is perfection 
Great post 🙂 And this was seven years before it’s director Andrew Dominik made his 2007 masterpiece The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 🙂 Anyway, keep up the great work as always 🙂
P.S. how you hangin during this COVID-19 pandemic?
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Australia, well the smaller states, were barely touched. Life has been back to 95% normal for at least a month now. I’m lucky to live in such a huge country with such a small population. Sydney and Melbourne got hit pretty bad tho, they have cerfews and the borders are shut down, which I’m happy about.
I heard in the US people are still travelling freely, which sounds insane to me, as closing the border is what prevented a severe outbreak here.
Tho I guess I shouldn’t count my chickens just yet eh?
Thanks for reading as always John! I intend to post much more often and, in fact I plan to rewatch every movie I reviewed when I first started, and review it, to see how different it is.
So back to 2014 I’ll be travelling! 🙂
BTW I didn’t even know that was the guy who did Jesse James! Well there you go. That name rings a bell tho, did he do m Macbeth a few years ago?
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Can’t wait to read more of your frequent posts Jordan 🙂
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Nope, just looked it up, that was another Aussie director Justin Kurzel. I still need to watch the True History of Ned Kelly, as the 2006 movie isn’t the best, though Heath Ledger was unsurprisingly amazing.
That same dude did The Snowtown Murders too. That whole story is true and happened in my backyard. Its rather terrifying, I gihly recommend it!!!
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Heath Ledger was undoubtedly the best aspect of the 2006 Ned Kelly film. Though I am a US citizen, I first started hearing bits and pieces about that in the media in 1999 since that was when the perpetrators were caught. Nevertheless, it was not until that 2011 film came out that I started reading more about it. I am so glad they never got to you considering that they were in your backyard. You must have been shaken up at the time? Once again though, I am so glad that nothing happened to you.
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Heh well given I live under a huge rock, don’t watch TV, don’t even have an arial and rarely leave the house, I was completely ignorant to it all. I was also young, and very very naive. I cannot stress that last point enough haha!
Hell… I only saw the movie a few years ago for the first time, and it was only a few years before that when I heard about it all from a mate – he was stunned I didn’t know anything about it
Its a freakin crazy story. There are some very, very dark parts of this country that most people don’t know about Australia – that story is one of many, but most are buried before folk know about it. Snowtown is different in that a lot of people knew all about what was going down waaaay before anything was found. It if didn’t go down like that, that movie wouldn’t exist.
But that stuff pales in comparison to how we have treated Aboriginal people and how we –still– treat people who try to leave their country because of war, poverty… they pour all their money into being on a shitty boat that MIGHT get here without sinking.
If they do make it, they are promptly thrown into a detention centre, which is scarily close to a concentration camp. No rights, no knowledge of if they will ever get out. There have been two recent docos about that stuff, but they got no attention, unsurprisingly. People have literally sewn their lips shut in protest.
The most devilish aspect of it all to me is that every employee, no matter their role, cannot disclose anything that is happening there. They have to sign stuff that means if they talk about it at all outside the centre, they are breaking the law and will be quickly arrested and silenced
Sorry I’ll shut up now. That last issue really pisses me off.
Do you use the messenger program, it is linked to facebook I think. It’d be cool to have a fellow movie-obsessionist (:P) to chat to!! 🙂
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As for a messenger program, this may sound a little awkward, but I do not have a facebook account or a twitter account because I do not even know how to create one. I mean I do know that it involves creating a password and stuff, but I would love to when I get the chance to learn from the sites on how 🙂 I also love it that you love talking about films as much as I do 🙂 Speaking of Australian cinema, did you ever see The Proposition, which is an Aussie western? 🙂
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I love that director, John Hillcoat, I had to look his name up haha. Looking at it though, he makes a shitload of music videos, I didn’t know that. He has worked with some big names in music, Nick Cave, Robert Plant, Massive Attack, that’s just three huge names and three of several. In film, freakin Tom Hardy, Ray Winstone, Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke. And VIGGO in The Road, which was only his third feature film! That’s why Viggo is my man crush hehe, he’ll do anything and that movie must have made Hillcoat’s name, its one of my favourite post apocalyptic movies, in my favourite genre. Us Aussies tend to make good movies like that eh? Mad Max, The Rover…
Triple 9 wasn’t great though. Looks like he is filming a new one, Witchcraft. Dunno who will be in it but the guy somehow has been able to work with some huge names.
Do you use twitter? any way to communicate and talk about film would be cool, its obvious you have seen a lot more movies than me!
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Speaking of Nick Cave, did you ever listen to that song he wrote and co-sang with the always beautiful Kylie Minogue entitled “Where the Wild Roses Grow”? 🙂 Hard to believe that it turned 25 this year (it was initially released in 1995). Nick Cave’s score to The Proposition is haunting stuff – I love it 🙂 And yes, you Aussies are masters at the post-Apocalyptic genre 🙂 Even If Hillcoat’s last one or two films left a lot to be desired, let us hope that when he does his next film, he gains that jolt of creativity that we saw in his music videos and films like The Proposition and The Road 🙂
I sure would love to learn how to create a twitter account one of these days because If I did, me and you can talk back and forth about films and stuff 🙂 I know I have my own blogging site too, but still 🙂
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just go to the site and sign up with your email. It doesn’t take much more than that, then you just tell me what username you picked and then I can add you and we can chat =D
and yeah that song is a classic down here, they are both adopted aussies remember hehe, both born and raised down under ;D
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Thanks for the tips Jordan 🙂 I shall consider creating a twitter account when I get the time – which is hopefully soon 🙂
Two legendary adopted Aussies as well 🙂 Speaking of Kylie, she has come a long way indeed. I read somewhere that she started out on this Australian soap opera entitled “Neighbours” I believe 🙂 As much as I love her early work, I personally believe that she just kept improving as an artist – in other words, she kept getting better and better 🙂 Same goes for Nick Cave, who just gets better and better as well 🙂 Coincidentally, he co-composed (with Warren Ellis) the music score to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 🙂
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Warren Ellis is soooooooooo underrated. Cave is a genius but Warren is integral. They also did The Proposition and Lawless, Hell or High Water, a French film Viggo did, several others too. I think The Road too.
Have you heard the last Bad Seeds album. Since he lost his son the last two albums have become much slower and darker.
Have you seen the two docos about him? Both incredibly interesting.
Ha, ‘Neighbours’. Kylie’s sister came from there as well, so did Ledger, almost all aussie actors were in Neighbours or Home and Away when younger – and yes, both are terrible soaps.
But hey, they made it. Well… Dani, not so much 😉
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Warren Ellis always seems to be glossed over when compared to Nick Cave. Nevertheless, I can’t think of any of those music scores working as well as they do without Ellis contribution. They complete each other in that regard.
I did hear the last Bad Seeds album and I noticed a change in tone ever since the death of Nick Cave’s son in 2015. It has been speculated that it was LSD induced, but I think that was just speculation – I think it was while the autopsy was still being performed at the time?
I have seen One More Time with Feeling (also directed by Andrew Dominak), but what was the second one because that looks as If it is bound to be every bit as interesting as One More Time? 🙂
I am not surprised regarding the opinion of Neighbours and Home and Away. I have never seen them, but let’s face it – daytime soap operas seem to be terrible in general and maybe that is what garners them an audience – bad, but in a good way as strange as that may sound 🙂
Yeah, I always kind of felt sympathy for Danii that she was not every bit as popular as Kylie – though I I think she is every bit as beautiful as Kylie 🙂 Then again that is just my opinion 🙂 Nevertheless, it has been reported that when an X factor (a reality show I believe) judge named Louis Walsh made unfavorable comparisons between Danii and Kylie, Kylie criticized him and defended Danii. Here is a wikipedia link to that below 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dannii_Minogue#Media_portrayal_and_other_activities
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His son fell off a cliff tripping allegedly, I think iot was based on a bit more than an autopsy report but I may be wrong
With you all the way with Ellis, both the seeds and their cinematic stuff just would not work with Ellis. It’d lack the atmosphere he can conjure up, whether it be on a bass guitar or some crazy synthesizer
One More Time is amazing.
The other one is 20,000 Days. It is before the death of his son, it primarily focuses around the recording of Push the Sky Away but moreso his creative process in general.
Watch it, very very fascinating!
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hA AFTER i WROTE THIWS i LOOKED
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ha, not long after writing this I looked to see if by chance something good was on:
Idiot Prayer, Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace
Its just him on a piano in a giant empty hall. he’s said its the last in the trilogy after those two other films.
20,000 Days is really worth watching, as is Idiot Prayer needless to say
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I need to check that one out 🙂 Sounds awesome 🙂 I would also like to share with you this equally awesome youtube video link on the films of flamboyant controversial British visionary filmmaker Ken Russell. Now this is not a definitive video of his work, but in case you are ever interested in checking out his work, the commentator in the video has some ideas 🙂 Here is the youtube video link below and If you like, tell me what you think 🙂
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hi mate, apologies for thje delay, I’ve had a lot on.
I am pretty sure I’ve read about that name in sight and sound magazine, but there is no link here??..
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That is strange? Okay, go to youtube.com and in the search engine, type in the words “Still Dangerous – The Films of Ken Russell” and see If that works 🙂
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