Marko Tekic

For Australian Cinema (MED231)


Seon Films presents Romper Stomper


Cast

Lead Male: Russell Crowe as Hando

Lead Female: Jacqueline McKenzie as Gabe

Supporting Male: Daniel Pollock as Davey

Alex Scott as Martin

Leigh Russell as Sonny Jim

Daniel Wyllie as Cackles

James McKenna as Bubs

Samantha Bladon as Tracy

Josephine Keen as Megan

John Brumpton as Magoo

Crew

Writer and Director: Geoffrey Wright

Produced by Daniel Scharf and Ian Pringle

Director of Photography: Ron Hagen A. S. C.

Editor: Bill Murphy

Production Designer: Steven Jones-Evans

Sound Designer: Frank Lipson

Original Music by John Clifford White



Romper Stomper went into production in 1991. First draft was submitted to the AFC (Australian Film Commission) in 1986 by Director Geoffrey Wright. The film was released on November, 9 1992.

Films budget was $1.68 million dollars. It was the second highest grossing film in 1992, after Strictly Ballroom, grossing $3.18 million.
To cut costs, the film was shot on Super 16 film rather than 35 mm film, and principal photography was kept to six weeks.

The film won several major awards:

1. Three AFI awards in 1992
2. Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role/ Australian Film Institute
3. Best Musical Score/ Australian Film Institute
4. Australian Star of the Year / Australian Motion Picture Exhibitors Association Convention, August 13, 1993
5. Best Actor / Film Critics' Circle of Australia
6. Best Male Actor / Variety Club Heart Awards
7. At the 1993 Seattle International Film Festival, Russell Crowe won the best actor award for his work in both Romper Stomper and Hammers over the Anvil (Golden Space Needles Best Actor Award).

Jacqueline McKenzie was nominated for the Best Leading Female Role at the 1992 AFI's.
The film was shown at 20 festivals around the world. Among them were festivals in Cannes, Chicago, Hong Kong, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Stockholm and Toronto.

The film reviews and production notes are available on the following websites:


By David Stratton

Romper Stomper is a Clockwork Orange without the intellect. In many ways genuinely appalling, pic centres on a gang of moronic neo-Nazi skinheads who regularly do battle with Melbourne's Vietnamese community… (Variety, 25/5/92)

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=upsell_review&reviewID=VE1117794556&cs=1

The release of Geoffrey Wright's violent, social realist work, Romper Stomper, instantly raised questions regarding violence both within our society and on the screen. The violence that permeates Romper Stomper, however, carries with it strong moral reasoning.

http://www.ozcinema.com/reviews/r/romperstomper.html

By Scott Renshaw

Romper Stomper inspired debate over its in-your-face scenes of gang beatings, but Wright clearly has more on his mind than exploitation. The film explores these local neo-fascist bands as collections of disaffected people looking for a charismatic figure to give them an excuse to vent their frustrations physically.

http://www.apolloguide.com/mov_revtemp.asp?CID=2884
RUSSELL CROWE, Daniel Pollock, Leigh Russell and newcomer Jacqueline McKenzie are set to play violent neo-Nazi skinheads in the controversial new Australian movie Romper Stomper.

For Russell Crowe, the film marks a departure from previous roles -- The Crossing, Proof and Brides of Christ -- where he has played sentimental, adolescent characters.

Young stars sign for a controversial new Australian movie
By Nicola Murphy
TV Week (Australia, August 17, 1991)

Long before laying waste to his enemies in Gladiator, Russell Crowe flaunted his acting muscles to critical acclaim as a magnetic neo-Nazi skinhead in this, Geoffrey Wright's brutal and controversial orgy of sex, violence, and racial hatred.

ROMPER STOMPER: SPECIAL EDITION
by Erin Richter
Entertainment Weekly
December 1, 2000

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Cinema/1501/index6.html

I have accessed ample amount of information on the movie and its production through the internet and the DVD copy of the film. I have not found an official web page for the movie as you might if you searched for Lord of the Rings Trilogy for example. This was to be expected since the movie was made in pre internet age and has not reached international fame of Hollywood type proportions till recently. Although Romper Stomper was renown, in the international circles, for its brutally honest stance it has not become widely known, as well as accessible, to the international public until it was released on DVD. I think this was mainly due to the success of Russell Crowe as an actor in Ridley Scott's Gladiator, since both DVD's were released in the same time. The search has indicated that information on Romper Stomper complements Russell Crowe as an actor rather than giving an elaborate view of the Australian Cinema and its preoccupations. Although it is becoming a cult film in Australia, Romper Stomper is not highly accessible worldwide, as indicated by my internet search, in comparison with likes of Reservoir Dogs and American History X that could be put in the same social problem film category. However with little patience one can manage to find websites that refer to the film and give comprehensive reviews and production information (Cast & Crew), as listed in notes above.


Critical Review:

Geoffrey Wright's Romper Stomper deals with issues no other film would dare to touch. Story revolves around Neo-Nazi group of skinheads who think of themselves not only as the occupants but protectors as well, of the Melbourne area of Footscray. Led by intelligent and charismatic; though vicious and hateful Hando (Russell Crowe), their existence is based solely on destruction and anarchy. First scene of the film gives us an insight into the meaning of the group's life, which is general hatred towards the Asian community. Hando and his gang of mindless thugs, expresses this through violence towards three Asian teenagers, beating them up for no other reason but for the colour of their skin. The dangerous ideology of Nazism is propelled through the faction by Hando, who is the only one that has adequate intellect to understand it, and who truly believes in the idea of white supremacy and racial purity. For him "gooks" are nothing but "human trash", brought to Australia by rich and the powerful as cheap labour. His followers are group of young man who have no direction in life; all rely on welfare, presumably come from torn families and are looking for sense of purpose to their lives. For them Hando is sense of purpose, he creates direction and gives meaning.

Early in the plot we are introduced to Gabe (Jacqueline McKenzie), the troubled young woman whose entry into the fold speeds up the group's unavoidable ruin. She meets Hando in a local pub, where the group hangs out. Her need for affection, although appearing seemingly strong on the outside, is accommodating for Hando's charismatic however poisoning personality. We find out that she has epilepsy that causes her to have a fit occasionally as well that she was sexually abused by her father. All this contributes to her vulnerable character.

First part of the film illustrates the continual molestation of Asian community by the skinheads. Continual beatings and humiliation are stopped when the overwhelming force of Asian factory workers strikes back at Hando and his gang. The clash between the two is bloody and in extremely well shot, almost agonizing to watch scene, many skinheads have lost their lives and the hunters have become the hunted. Extremely realistic, shot like a documentary style, is applied to the whole film. From normal conversation through to fighting sequences and not so gentle, often savage like, sex scenes, the movie radiates with pragmatism that suits the uncompromisingly honest, often confronting ideas that are explored throughout the film. Nationalistic and racist ideas and hatred are only fuelled by the loss of their friends and their forced banishing from Footscray. Gabe (Jacqueline McKenzie) is so neurotic and estranged that she leads them into her father's home where they proceed to bash him before tying him to his own toilet. All this just so they can afford to buy guns to avenge their friends. The cycle of violence continues. They smash a few things, steal others, load up the Rolls Royce but get sidetracked by more vandalism. Their undisciplined brutality leads to their failure, the robbery going astray when Martin, Gabe's father, manages to free himself and tries to shot his robbers as they flee the house empty handed. Back in the warehouse, the group has occupied after being chased out of Footscray, Hando in all his rage kicks Gabe out of the group. Davey (Daniel Pollock), Hando's right hand and best friend, who is in love with Gabe and has increasing doubts about his relationship with the group, also decides to leave Hando and his self-destructive ways. One of the characters, Bubs is shot and the rest are arrested, after Gabe makes an anonymous phone call to the police.

Romper Stomper unlike many other films does not have a typical three part expansion of introduction, development and conclusion. Rather the first part of the film tells of the ways, ideas and the downfall of Hando's group. It is relatively dynamic including brutal fighting sequences and heavy punk music. It also shows how the gang becomes mainly a party scene and substitutes a family, and only a small part actually concentrates on the expression of tangible political views.
In the second part although the followers of the ideology are out of the picture, the ideology in itself is intact, still being able to inflict more pain and cause great harm. Hando, who represents these principles, after reuniting with Gabe and Davey, decides that they should all flee west. In the process Hando, who has gone from charismatic and assuring to completely mad, has murdered the service station attendant while there were robbing it. While stopping at the beach, on their way towards Adelaide, Hando attempts to kill Gabe when he found out that she was the one who called the cops regarding the robbery of her father's house. Davey in attempt to protect Gabe is left with no other choice but to kill Hando, by stabbing him in the neck. The film ends on that beach with the death not only of Hando, but of what he represents.

Romper Stomper has provoked large amount of critism from the public in Australia, likes of David Stratton arguing that the movie did not make any moral judgments in regard to Nazi ideology propagated throughout the movie. Despite some alarmist views, the movie never glorifies or even remotely condones the violent and hateful ways of the skinheads. If anything, it shows just how simple-minded and senseless these individuals are. Although the film doesn't really attempt to investigate the foundation of their thoughts, with any profundity, it does condemn racism and hatred through plot development. Second part of the film is based purely on the idea of destruction of the system of beliefs that lead to violent behaviour in the first part off the film. Character of Hando ultimately self destructs, his system of values, or lack of, leads him towards the state of madness. This is illustrated quite well in the last scene of the movie as Hando is trying to persuade Davey to abandon Gabe. He tells him how Gabe is sick; how she does not love him and that she is absolutely desperate. The miserable, almost insane expression on Hando's face tells us that he is the one who is frantic about his own survival and one of his ideals.

I got the impression that the pessimism, inside the group, is based upon feelings of worthlessness, but there's little exploration of these thoughts. The movie illustrates the actions of the skinheads but tries modestly to examine them with any depth, and this is one of the reasons why many critics think that its social message is weak in comparison with such movies as Fight Club and Clockwork Orange. However I think that the film has very well defined characters who inside a group shown a lot of mateship and compassion for each other. They are not completely ruthless and black-hearted, as critics would like to see them, but they care for each other and would give their lives for each other. Geoffrey Wright makes sure that these characteristics are prominent in at least one of the characters, Davey; who slowly begins to recover his sense of humanity when an emotion that isn't hate is awakened in him; unconditional love towards Gabe. He being able to distinguish right from wrong and having some compassion holds an idea that the ideology promoting racism and intolerance is what makes certain, emotionally weaker, individuals fall under its grasp. This may be the reason why Geoffrey Wright chooses not to define its characters motivation behind their feelings of hatred, towards foreigners. Extreme they are, but they were all naive kids once, now stained by undoubtedly wrong set of principles is the general idea. Leaving them ambiguous and have them related more towards general feelings of worthlessness, leaves space to draw attention to ideology these characters follow, in form of pure hatred and extremely brutal and unscrupulous violence.

The writing in this movie is excellent, and is often compared with American History X because of its themes of racism, hatred and violence. In both movies the story revolves around two exceptionally charismatic characters, both carriers and propagators of an ideology of intolerance, which in times appears almost religious like in the way it is followed. It looks like the screenwriter David McKenna and the director Tony Kaye, of American History X, are quite familiar with Romper Stomper because some scenes and general editing styles are alike? The general scenography and parties of the inner-city skinhead look the same in Melbourne, Australia, and Venice Beach, California. In that tone, what I think really stands out is magnificent direction by the hand of Geoffrey Wright, who also wrote and directed such movies as Silver Surfer, Metal Skin, Lover boy, and Cherry Falls. The parts of the movie that really drag you in are the bashing and chasing sequences around the streets of Melbourne. Scenography is truly unbelievable, the grey, slightly tint bluish look really brings out that uncomfortable gut feeling in the viewer, as you are watching skinheads being involved in a hostile, frenzy like, survival escape away from the Asian gang that is chasing them. The opinion of many critics is that the movie drops of in its intensity in the second half because it concentrates more on the love triangle between Hando, Gabe and Davey. These kinds of comments treat Romper Stomper as a Hollywood action flick, which it is not. The love triangle is the necessary evil because the first part of the film, with all the brutality and rawness of the fight sequences and the skinhead party, was not constructed in order to give an adrenaline burst to the viewer. They were shot in order to confront the audience with brute realism of what this type of radical thinking can lead to. Using a handheld 16mm camera not only reduced the cost of the production, but it managed to bring the viewer closer to the documentary grind. Using the format's portability Ron Hagen (D.O.P) placed the camera in the middle of fists fights, Doc. Martens, and blood, taking advantage of odd camera angles, violent set-ups that leave you feeling breathless.

Although critics around the world compare RS with Clockwork Orange, I would say that it is more readily comparable with such movies as American History X and The Believer; purely because RS is not about violence and mayhem in general terms, but concerns itself with ideology that promotes hatred based on racism and national intolerance. In American History X Derek Vineyard (Edward Norton) plays a son of a white Los Angeles cop killed on the job. With his shaven head and Nazi tattoos, Derek has the treacherous charisma of an SS officer straight from the academy. His character is in many ways similar to Hando's but Derek's views do not lead him to self-destruct but rather repent for what he has done. Being in jail for three years, for the murder of two blacks, is the turning point for Derek, making him reject the Nazi ideology. So in many ways it has a strong social message, Derek did realise his wrong doings. Romper Stomper avoids these Hollywood clichés: it contains no dramatic conversions; messages are open for interpretation to the public and what I think is the most interesting thing about the film is that it does not have a hero. Hando does not realize his wrong doings, which is why the movie is so realistic. It depicts a life of an actual human being, not a fictional one.

Although the writing and the direction is superb, the acting is what gives the movie its weight. Russell Crowe, however fames he might be in Hollywood, for roles in L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997), The Insider (Michael Mann, 1999), Beautiful Mind and for his Oscar winning performance as Rome's finest general turned Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000), to the Australian public he was known, in 1992, as a cruel however intelligent leader of a Neo-Nazi gang in Melbourne area of Footscray. Although he is internationally renown as general Maximus, his finer performance was in Romper Stomper under the direction of Geoffrey Wright. Also role of HANDO propelled Russell Crowe to Hollywood heights, is the opinion held by many. The New York Times called Russell "a post-punk answer to Marlon Brando," comparing his "mixture of menace and animal magneticism" with Brando's in The Wild One. The violence and the hatred for everything he considers foreign and inferior to him are absolute and he portrays it with sheer passion. It is difficult to find involvedness in a person full of hate, but Crowe manages it. Although the character of Hando sticks with his believes till the very end, the madness and desperation are portrayed by Russell Crowe with confusion, but still with no remorse what so ever. This is a very dark role indeed, but Crowe handled it with no problems whatsoever.

"Every role has different things that speak to you. With 'Romper Stomper,' I was afraid of delving into the darkness of the neo-Nazi ideology on one hand; but on the other hand, I could tell that it was going to be a very important social document. That was the imperative behind my doing it."

The rest of the cast is also extremely credible and includes Alex Scott, Leigh Russell (Dust of the Wings), Daniel Pollock (Lover Boy, Nirvana Street Murder), James McKenna, and Jacqueline McKenzie (Freak Weather, Deep Blue Sea was her US debut). Jacqueline McKenzie has received an AFI award for Best Female Lead playing a schizophrenic in Angel Baby (Michael Rymer, 1995). What is rather interesting is that the character of Gabe was, from background point of view, the most developed one although her character does not pose a lot of significance to the main thematic of the film, which is the racial and ideology issue. We know that her unstable emotional stage is due to her father raping her as well as a lot of information about her mother etc.

Romper Stomper is definitely not your Hollywood action flick, however I would not call art house either. Although with its limited budget of $1.68 million, it did not reach Hollywood heights, it did extremely well domestically coming second highest grossing film in 1992, after Strictly Ballroom. Let's face the facts; Australian film industry can not go hand in hand with Hollywood. What we can do is create original films, on limited budgets, that will cover certain issues in the way they have not been covered before. And that is exactly what Romper Stomper did. The fact that it kicked up a bit of the stink from the critics, who thought at the time that it condoned racism, it does not necessarily place in the cult film part of the video store together with Dr. Strangelove and Polanski films. I actually had a good time watching the film, and one of the reasons why it was so enjoyable is because of the fact that the film did not directly create judgment, but it allowed the viewer to interact with the film and make up their own mind about the issues being portrayed. In a way it was educating me on these issues through a gripping cinematic experience. Is this movie a piece of entertainment, not quite, is it an art house piece, I don't think so. Maybe they should place it in a category of its own, category of Interactive Australian Film.

Although many would find this film somewhat difficult to watch due to the violence and aggression portrayed, it is an extremely well done educational piece that informs the viewer of the dangers of uncompromising hate that dwells in some parts of our society. If Romper Stomper is trying to pass along any message, the message would be that racism does exist; intolerance divides us and ultimately turns us against each other. The fact that the film received such large amount of criticism states that the public does not want to know about these elements of the society. We deciding to stay ignorant about it will not change the fact that these problems need to be addressed sooner or latter. Racism and intolerance can poison the nation's blood and the effects are felt for generations to come. I would recommend this movie to anyone who cares about their future and the future of this country.