Chopper (2000)Starring: Eric Bana, Simon Lyndon, Vince Colosimo, Kate Beahan, Kenny Graham, David Field, Dan Wyllie
For our last week looking at Australian cinema in Introduction to Cinema we are looking at the crime genre, so watched Andrew Dominik's highly controversial debut film Chopper.
Drawing inspiration from the novels he published about himself while in prison, Chopper captures a series of events in the life of Melbourne underworld hard man Mark 'Chopper' Read (Bana). Chopper dreams of becoming an admired, famous criminal legend. The film shows him trying to establish his reputation first in prison, and later on out of prison among the criminal underworld. But the closer that he gets to the infamy and notoriety he desires the more his life becomes one defined by loneliness, paranoia and jealousy.
It is an interesting time to have just seen this film. With the recent press circus around the death of Carl Williams a lot of questions were asked about whether the success of television shows like Underbelly and films like Chopper glamorise crime, making folk heroes out of thugs like Williams and Read, and whether it is right that people like Roberta Williams and Fadi Ibrahim are regular features in the social pages. With this in mind it was interesting to watch the way that Dominik presented the character of Chopper. I have never watched Underbelly so can't comment on that, but make no mistake, there is nothing glamorous about the way in which Mark Read is presented in this film. Much like in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, Dominik consciously adopts a non-judgemental stance in his presentation of Chopper, preferring to let the character speak for himself. Chopper is not a run of the mill crime/gangster story. It is a character exploration. It was difficult to write a narrative summary of the film because there is not really a central storyline. Rather the film is an exploration of the character of Mark Read. What we see is a slightly deranged, verging on split personality, shameless self publicist, and while he manages to achieve to a degree the fame and notoriety that he desires he is shown to be a paranoid, untrusting and ultimately lonely man. It is hard to argue that Chopper in any way glamorises the criminal lifestyle, because I don't think there is anyone out there who would watch Chopper and wish he could switch places with Read.
Andrew Dominik is quite a highly touted Australian director, but not one people know all that much about. He followed up Chopper seven years later with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (one of the longer film titles in recent years). Part of the reason he's not so well known, other than the fact that he hardly churns out the movies, is the style of films he makes. Dominik appears to be heavily influenced by art films, meaning that he is not as easily marketable as a Baz Luhrmann or George Miller. This art film influence can be easily seen in Chopper, which is visually quite an interesting film. Dominik and his cinematographers Geoffrey Hall and Kevin Hayward makes interesting use of colour, particularly in creating a claustrophobic, dirty feel in the homes that Chopper visits, as well as camera technique. Particularly notable is the scene in which Read has just snorted some speed and they achieve a slightly twitchy visual by filming everything at half speed and then speeding it up to normal pace. The ambiguity of the narrative is also suggests an art film influence, particularly in the shooting of Sammy the Turk late in the film where we see the same scene enacted three times; firstly what "actually" happened, secondly the story that Chopper tells to the police, and thirdly a poetic, almost vaudevillian interpretation of the scene demonstrating how each time the story is retold the myth gets larger and more consciously dramatic.
Eric Bana is a real force in this film. It is his performance which makes this film so engrossing. His ability to balance just enough charm to make you like the guy, with the rage and unstable personality of a psychopath to make you disgusted that you do. While he has gone on to hit it big in Hollywood, appearing in a diverse range of films including Black Hawk Down, Troy, The Hulk, Funny People, Star Trek and Munich, it is important to remember that when he was cast in the lead in Chopper he was just that guy from the sketch comedy show Full Frontal and his only feature film experience was a small part in The Castle. To entrust a comedian with the title role, with his performance really likely to make or break the film, was a huge gamble. But it paid off. This was the performance that launched Bana into the spotlight. It would be his performance as Mark Read rather than as Ray Martin or Poida which helped him get his foot in the door in Hollywood. When you see Chopper you understand why.
This film is not going to be for everyone. It has an R18+ rating for a reason. There is a fair bit of violence and some of the language is equally confronting. But whether or not Chopper is your kind of film, there is no denying that it is a very brave film. It was a brave subject for Dominik to tackle in his feature film debut as a director. It was a brave move to cast a comedian, an unknown acting commodity, in the title role. It was a brave move to incorporate some art house style visuals into a film which was expected to be a more run of the mill crime movie. There is a lot to admire Chopper, the film that is, not the man.
No comments:
Post a Comment