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By the time you see this film it will already be a cult classic. A big hit
on the arthouse circuit, comedian Eric Bana's performance as one of Australia's most notorious
gangland figures is a rare glimpse of sublimity (and if the DVD voiceover by the real-life
Chopper Read is anything to go by, it is as much his effort as Bana's). Mark 'Chopper' Read spent his criminal
career shooting & robbing drug dealers and attained a certain notoreity for his matter-of-fact
charm and wild displays of calculated madness portrayed in the film. From brutally shivving fellow
inmates to unreservedly & genuinely apologizing for it to cutting his own ears cut off to
transfer him away from the prison fraternity out for his blood, Chopper comes across as a likeable
rogue, invariably comic at times (the real-life Chopper remarking on a DVD voiceover to die for,
"I cut my ears off before anyone had ever heard of Quentin Tarantino...")
The film itself is an outstanding effort with some brilliant innovation from director Andrew Dominik,
most notably the coke-snorting scene where the film is speeded up in accordance with the
character's induced sensations, but these brief glimpses of technical accomplishment are dealt
out frugally, never allowed to overwhelm the action as is so often the case.
The former rock video director achieves a delicate balance with the more gruesome elements of the story (sometimes
hiding them out of shot sometimes not) always leaving just enough to tell the story.
Where the film suffers (or gains depending on your viewpoint) is the story. From all reports,
Chopper's story is a lengthy one and instead of delivering a Lawrence of Arabia style epic we are
treated to a series of elliptical events from his early prison days to a brief spell of freedom
(where Choppers alleges to be in the pay of the police) and his inevitable return to jail
as a celebrity inmate.
The backstory is minimal and the timeframe between sequences vague at best. However the story delivers
what promises and if anything leaves you wanting more (there are numerous books available by and about
Chopper Read) but you can't help thinking that large chunks have been left on the cutting room floor or
censored out. The DVD restores several of these.
Grisly at times the film is both funny, sad and bizarre. It boasts some of the most convincing extras
in terms of eighties ugliness and is a rare black comedy in the same vein as Man
Bites Dog and Goodfellas (both of which it gives a run for their money).
If there were truly a God in Hollywood then Bana would have got an oscar. I'm sure Chopper could put
the judges straight about a thing or two...
If you like your humour brutal & Australian then this is the film for you.
RATING: (c)Limer 2001
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Chopper (DVD/Rental: March 2001)
