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Chopper

Critical Review and Bibliography

By Stacey Bonanno

Part one: Film Information.

Credits

Eric Bana Mark "Chopper" Read

Simon Lyndon Jimmy Loughnan

Vince Colosimo Neville Bartos

David Field (I) Keithy George

Daniel Wyllie Bluey

Bill Young (I) Det. Downie

Kenny Graham (II) Keith Read

Kate Beahan Tanya

Renee Brack TV Interviewer

Gregory Pitt Prison Officer 1

Richard Sutherland Prison Officer 2

Garry Waddell Kevin Darcy

Andrew Dunn (III) Prison Officer 3

Caleb Cluff Det. Creswell

Hilton Henderson Det. Wyatt

Directed by Andrew Dominik

Script: Andrew Dominik, based on the books by Chopper Read

Producer: Michele Bennett

Cinematographers: Kevin Hayward, Geoffrey Hall

Australian Distributor: Palace/Fox

Release Dates and Box Office Information.

Chopper opened nation-wide on August 3, 2000, on 138 screens.
It grossed $1, 258, 717 (Australian) over the opening weekend.
It displaced The Patriot (on 333 screens) from the top spot on the opening weekend.
It is the highest grossing release in Palace Films' 25 year history.
After its 8th week in release, Chopper had grossed $5, 503, 559 (Australian).
By April 29, 2001, it had grossed $60, 338 (US) in the United States.
It was the first R rated Australian film to get to number one on the box office charts.

Interviews with the Filmmakers.

I found it extremely difficult to find interviews with the filmmakers of Chopper, though the online presence as far as reviews went was excellent. I will discuss further on the possible reasons why I had such difficulty finding interviews. However, here are the two that I found.

Interview with Eric Bana http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2000/11/22/eric_bana_chopper_2211_interview.shtml

Interview with Director Andrew Dominik and Producer Michele Bennett http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/

Reviews.

Cinema Papers, June-July 2000, #133, pp. 40-41 has a review of the film containing a large photo montage.

Movie Review Query Engine, http://mrqe.com contains 43 reviews from various publications.

Other reviews can be found at:

http://www.insideout.co.uk/films/c/chopper_r2.shtml

http://www.astor-theatre.com/calendar/reviewsC/chopper.html

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/atoday/stories/s161582.htm

http://home.earthlink.net/~quipster/chopper.htm

http://infilmau.iah.net/reviews/chopper.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2000/11/22/chopper_2000_review.shtml

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/review/film/s163159.htm

http://urbancinefile.com.au

http://us.imdb.com

http://www.aintitcool.com

The Chopper website, http://www.chopperthemovie.com, lists quotes from a large number of reviews, from sources including:

The Movie Show
IF Magazine
The Panel
The Sun Herald
The Daily Telegraph
The Age
The Sunday Age
The West Australian
Perth Weekly
Inside Melbourne
Metro News
Movie Trader
Juice Magazine
Who Weekly
FHM
Auckland Film Festival Director, Bill Gosden
There are also full reviews in this site taken from:

The Sydney Morning Herald, August 3rd, 2000, by Sandra Hall

and

The Australian, July 29th, 2000, by Evan Williams

Another site that I had a look at was http://www.netspace.net.au. I did not find this page very helpful, as there was no review, (though the movie was listed under the reviews section), they got the release year wrong, saying 1999 when it should have been 2000, and the page itself was not very well designed.

Awards

2001 Australian Film Critics Circle Awards
Best Actor — Male: Eric Bana
Best Director: Andrew Dominik
Best Film
Best Supporting Actor — Male: Simon Lyndon (Tied with Terry Norris for Innocence (2000))
2000 Australian Film Institute Awards
Best Achievement in Direction: Andrew Dominik
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Eric Bana
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Simon Lyndon
Nominated for:

Best Achievement in Cinematography: Geoffrey Hall, Kevin Hayward
Best Achievement in Editing: Ken Sallows
Best Achievement in Production Design: Paddy Reardon
Best Achievement in Sound: Steve Burgess (I), Frank Lipson, Glenn Newnham, John Schiefelbein
Best Film: Michele Bennett
Best Original Music Score: Mick Harvey
Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Source: Andrew Dominik
2000 Stockholm Film Festival
Best Actor: Eric Bana
Nominated for:

Bronze Horse: Andrew Dominik

Method and Effectiveness of my Research

I undertook the main part of my research on the World Wide Web, as my film is so recent I did not think there was much chance of it having a mention in any books or other hard copy references. I did have a look in Cinema Papers, and found some useful information, but any other attempts to find references in other non-web publications were fairly desultory. I put the words "Chopper", "Eric Bana" and "Andrew Dominik" into the search engine, and got a huge amount of responses, too many to be able to sort through them all. I did go through a large number of the search results, however, and used what I found for compiling the lists of reviews and interviews.

Mentions of various newspaper and magazine reviews were also culled from my web searching, as I have previously described.

I have already mentioned the fact that I had great difficulty finding interviews with the filmmakers. It may be because I was searching in the wrong places or perhaps because of the fact that I was unfamiliar with the web sites. The other possible explanation is that perhaps there just weren't many interviews done with the filmmakers due to it being an R rated film, an Australian film, or a collection of other reasons.

Part two: Critical Review

Synopsis

(Note: Much of this synopsis is adapted from the one which can be found at www.chopperthemovie.com)

Mark "Chopper" Read is the son of a greatly religious mother and a father who is an ex-soldier. Chopper dreams of making a name for himself as an infamous crime figure.

Chopper has been in and out of jail since the age of sixteen. To repay a debt to his best mate, Jimmy Loughnan, he has attempted to kidnap a judge (using a gun loaded with blanks) to induce Jimmy's release from the ill-famed maximum security H Division at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison.

Chopper receives sixteen and a half years for his unsuccessful attempt, and is reunited with Loughnan in H Division. While there, he re-ignites a power struggle for the division, with Keithy George, a hardened criminal who rules H Division. George writes Chopper off as a mere 'show pony', but is soon fatally stabbed by Chopper in a fit of rage which takes everyone by surprise.

Chopper attempts to justify his increasingly unpredictable behaviour with lies and distortions, but Jimmy attacks him and stabs him, torn between their friendship, and his own instinct to survive.

Recovered from the attack, but still afraid of further vengeance, Chopper persuades another inmate to hack off his ears, to effect a transfer from H Division.

Eight years later, and Chopper is released, paranoid and driven by guilt and resentment. He tries to revive a relationship with working girl Tanya, but becomes suspicious that she has been involved with western-suburbs drug-lord, Neville Bartos. He visits Neville's home in search of money. When Bartos does not oblige, Chopper shoots him, then drives him to hospital.

Chopper goes around announcing that he has a green light from the police to dole out punishment to "scum" as he sees fit. In truth, however, the police, who may turn a blind eye to some of his misconduct as he is a valuable informant, are for the most part unimpressed with Chopper's role playing.

Chopper hears about a 'contract' that Bartos might have out on him, and consequently pays a visit on his old mate Jimmy, only to discover that Jimmy has been ravaged by years of drug abuse and failure with two children and another on the way to his junkie fiancee, Mandy. Both Jimmy and Chopper are suspicious of each other's motives, and Chopper leaves.

Chopper ends up at Bojangles nightclub, where, in a fit of paranoia, he kills a minor criminal by the name of Sammy the Turk. He manages to beat the charge because of his legendary story telling ability.

Not long after, he is charged for another offence and returns to jail, where he writes an exaggerated rendition of his life and crimes. The book becomes a bestseller, thus Chopper becomes the cult hero he originally set out to be.

My Opinion

I thought that this film was exceptional. The story was involved enough to be interesting, but not so involved as to become bewildering. Eric Bana gave an amazing performance in the lead role; convincing, compelling and hilarious. The film managed to invest horrendous acts of violence with a deeply black comic quality. Powerful cinematography and great support actors made for an unforgettable film experience. I particularly liked the way that the film did not pass judgment on Read, rather it simply told a story about him, and left the audience to make up their own minds about him. There were moments when you felt you could see the lonely and confused man behind the machismo, but, as the review in Cinema Papers says, "…every time you find yourself starting to sympathise with Read, he does something which totally repulses you." (June-July 2000, #133, pp 40-41). This was what kept the audience on the edge of their seats.

Critical Uptake

Within critical circles, the film was touted as a great achievement, as is indicated by the amount of awards it won (4 Australian Film Critics Circle Awards, 3 Australian Film Institute Awards, and 1 award at the Stockholm Film Festival) and was nominated for. It's interesting to note that all of the reviews I read of the film were positive. Some were concerned about the violence, some were concerned about the portrayal of Mark Read, but all agree that the film was brilliantly executed and acted.

The film did, however, cause a large amount of critical debate. Many were worried that the film glorified a man who was unashamedly a confessed killer, among other things. The fact that he had set out with the intention of becoming infamous and the film would help him achieve that aim was a concern for many. Though most agreed that the performance of Bana in the lead was brilliant, and the film itself was very well done, a large number of people were reluctant to see the film because of the principle of supporting a hardened criminal, or because of the fear that they may see another side of a man they wished to continue hating.

Production and Release

According to the Triple J review of the film found at the address www.abc.net.au/triplej/review/film/s163159.htm, "it took seven years for Sydney-based director Andrew Dominik to bring his first feature film Chopper to the big screen." Both the writer/director Andrew Dominik and Eric Bana, the lead, spent a considerable amount of time with the real Mark Brandon Read on his farm in order to learn about the real man, whose motto is "don't let the truth get in the way of a good story". So the script itself is certainly not a true and accurate account of the life and times of Mark "Chopper" Read, though many plot elements are taken from real life events. The script is based on the books of Read, and these books themselves are exaggerated, true to Read's motto.

The release date and box office information has already been discussed in part one of this piece, but there was some controversy over the release in Australia of the DVD version of the film, as reported in Urban Cinefile. (www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=4688&s=News_files) Apparently, the special edition version of the DVD includes deleted scenes, a few outtakes, separate voice over commentaries by Dominik and Mark Brandon Read himself, as well as A Weekend With Chopper, which is highlights from the footage of the weekend Bana and Dominik spent with Read before the film was made. This special edition version was released in the UK much earlier than it was released here, and many consumers were indignant that the initial release of the DVD in Australia was the version without the extra features.

It seems, however, that this decision was made to maximise returns to the distributor and filmmaker. The way Andrew Urban describes it is thus:

By creating a rental-only platform prior to a sell-through platform of the DVD, Fox is actually expanding the revenue potential of the film — without disadvantaging the consumer. (Except for the impatient ones…) While no doubt those who are impatient to get the full DVD version will import the DVD from the UK, the full version will be available in Australia, too.

The rental business has always been more profitable and popular in Australia than sell-through. Apparently, Fox believes their plan meets consumer demand as well as satisfying commercial needs, as 'rentailers' pay a higher price for a 'vanilla' DVD (ie no extras) than consumers pay for a fully loaded DVD. In the end, the mistake of the distributors was failing to inform the public of their strategies in a way that puts them in context.

Prior work of the Filmmakers

Chopper is the first feature film for writer/director Andrew Dominik. This is significant, as part of the charm of the film is that the viewer is not quite sure what to expect. I don't think the film would have been as effective if it were directed by someone who has a definite, established style.

The cinematographers have each done cinematography for a number of films previously, most of which I have never heard of. Kevin Hayward was cinematographer on Traps (1994), Reckless Kelly (1993), My Grandfather is a Vampire (1991) (aka Grampire (1991), Moonrise (1991), and My Grandpa is a Vampire (1991)), The Returning (1990), Bridge to Nowhere (1986), Queen City Rocker (1986) (aka Total Defiance (1986)), Shaker Run (1985), Constance (1984), and Pallet on the Floor (1984). Geoffrey Hall was cinematographer on The Missing (1999), and The Life of Harry Dare (1994). Both have also worked in different capacities on various other films. Clearly, the cinematographers have a great deal of experience between them, and this is reflected in the excellent cinematography in the film Chopper.

The lead actor, Eric Bana, is well recognised in Australia as a comedian, both in stand-up and sketch comedy. This certainly adds to the black comedy element of the film, as audiences are dimly aware in the back of their minds that the man before their eyes has often in the past caused them to laugh, and perhaps they subsequently have an expectation of laughter being the result again. On the flip side, they are unused to seeing Bana in the capacity of a 'serious' actor, and therefore the shock element is equally strong. If Bana had not given such a compelling performance, the film would not have been so effective, as his violent actions would have seemed too far removed from his habitual comic character, and therefore been unbelievable. His performance is, however, compelling; he has so much 'become' Chopper, that the hint of comedian only heightens the dark humour of the piece.

General Position of Australian Film

The first thing that must be said in a discussion of the uptake of Australian film generally, is the fact, already mentioned, that in its opening weekend, Chopper overtook The Patriot for the number one spot. It must be understood that The Patriot was one of the big Hollywood blockbusters at the time, so for an R rated Australian film to overtake it, was quite an achievement. It seems to bode very well for the future of Australian cinema, indicating that we can create cinema that is commercially successful as well as critically successful.

US audiences seemed to receive the film very well. Urban Cinefile describes the reaction to Chopper at the Toronto festival as "exceptionally enthusiastic". It was this reaction from the North American audience that apparently convinced US distributor, First Look Pictures, to sign an "all rights" deal for the movie, for what is described as a "mid range sum". The film has grossed over $60, 000 (US) in the US to date.

The UK was a different story. Cinema Papers, February-March 2001, #137, pp. 29-31, uses the UK release of Chopper as a starting point to talk about Australian films in the UK in general. The article states "there was almost no publicity in the UK prior to the film's release, nor after" (p.29). Christopher Tookey, film critic for the Daily Mail sums it up, saying "Generally the style and content of Australian films do not appeal to British audiences. Your films are made for Australian audiences, which is as it should be" (p.29). It seems that the film simply was not a widespread success like it was in Australia, though Al Clark on page 30 of the article says "in the UK, Chopper's a cult hit."

Overall, Chopper seems to have all the right elements. It is different enough to be uniquely Australian, but similar enough to many mainstream films to hook audiences in. It demonstrates the unique Australian ability to invest even the darkest situation with humour, and it showcases some extraordinary Australian talent.