*MINOR SPOILERS*
I've never really been a fan of violent movies. So it was with some trepidation that I finally sat down and watched Chopper about six months ago. I've watched it two or three times since, and it's only since Eric Bana has become the latest Hollywood it boy that I felt compelled to comment. Because, very simply, Eric is the star of the show. It's a masterful piece of acting.
At the end of the day, career crim Mark 'Chopper' Read it presented as a bit of a sad git. He's paranoid and has a serious anger management problem. In Pentonville prison, he stabs one of his many enemies in the face with a pair of pliers, then offers him a cigarette by way of apology. In the movie's most disturbing scene, we watch as he instructs a fellow inmate to hack off his ears. There is no rhyme or reason to Chopper. He dances to the beat of his own drum.
When he's released from prison, he has a few scores to settle. Or does he? It becomes impossible to separate fact from fiction. Chopper is a teller of tall tails! He spreads rumours about himself, then denies them. Is he working for the police? Do half the drug dealers in Melbourne have a contract on his life? Or is Chopper just some sort of paranoid schizophrenic?
This is Eric Bana's movie. Supporting characters come and go, we aren't given enough information to care about them. Bana's screen presence is incredible. He IS Chopper. Whenever he's on screen, he commands attention.
A lot of detail is left out- the screenwriters seem to assume that the viewer will be familiar with Chopper's story. Most of us here in Oz are, but I can imagine overseas audiences being a little mystified. His writing is thrown in ten minutes from the end as almost an afterthought. His connections to half the people he antagonises aren't fully explained.
Something that surprised me is how funny this movie is. I was laughing out loud for most of it. The most amazing part of Bana's performance is that his Chopper is likable. You're actually rooting for him! He's portrayed as a bit of a larrikin, a genuine down to earth Aussie bloke. This is a man who punches his girlfriend in the face, then headbutts her mother. He's fond of waving his gun at people. He exposes himself to women in bars. The fact that we don't find him completely reprehensible is a testiment to the subtlety of Bana's performance. He has Chopped down pat. His voice. His mannerisms. His genuine but slightly off kilter charm. You're invited to almost feel sorry for him. He loves the media circus he has created, but the final scene is of him sitting in his prison cell, alone and cut off from a world in which he is really nothing but a novelty.
It's not pretty. In fact, in places is downright disturbing. But the comparisons to movies like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels are justified.
I've never really been a fan of violent movies. So it was with some trepidation that I finally sat down and watched Chopper about six months ago. I've watched it two or three times since, and it's only since Eric Bana has become the latest Hollywood it boy that I felt compelled to comment. Because, very simply, Eric is the star of the show. It's a masterful piece of acting.
At the end of the day, career crim Mark 'Chopper' Read it presented as a bit of a sad git. He's paranoid and has a serious anger management problem. In Pentonville prison, he stabs one of his many enemies in the face with a pair of pliers, then offers him a cigarette by way of apology. In the movie's most disturbing scene, we watch as he instructs a fellow inmate to hack off his ears. There is no rhyme or reason to Chopper. He dances to the beat of his own drum.
When he's released from prison, he has a few scores to settle. Or does he? It becomes impossible to separate fact from fiction. Chopper is a teller of tall tails! He spreads rumours about himself, then denies them. Is he working for the police? Do half the drug dealers in Melbourne have a contract on his life? Or is Chopper just some sort of paranoid schizophrenic?
This is Eric Bana's movie. Supporting characters come and go, we aren't given enough information to care about them. Bana's screen presence is incredible. He IS Chopper. Whenever he's on screen, he commands attention.
A lot of detail is left out- the screenwriters seem to assume that the viewer will be familiar with Chopper's story. Most of us here in Oz are, but I can imagine overseas audiences being a little mystified. His writing is thrown in ten minutes from the end as almost an afterthought. His connections to half the people he antagonises aren't fully explained.
Something that surprised me is how funny this movie is. I was laughing out loud for most of it. The most amazing part of Bana's performance is that his Chopper is likable. You're actually rooting for him! He's portrayed as a bit of a larrikin, a genuine down to earth Aussie bloke. This is a man who punches his girlfriend in the face, then headbutts her mother. He's fond of waving his gun at people. He exposes himself to women in bars. The fact that we don't find him completely reprehensible is a testiment to the subtlety of Bana's performance. He has Chopped down pat. His voice. His mannerisms. His genuine but slightly off kilter charm. You're invited to almost feel sorry for him. He loves the media circus he has created, but the final scene is of him sitting in his prison cell, alone and cut off from a world in which he is really nothing but a novelty.
It's not pretty. In fact, in places is downright disturbing. But the comparisons to movies like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels are justified.