Chopper 9/10

Chopper (R) 2000
Reviewer’s Tilt (9)
Drama-90min
Special DVD Features worth a look-Director/Author Commentaries


Eric Bana (2003’s “The Hulk”) delivers uncanny bravura in this fictionalized account of Australia’s most notorious criminal. Erstwhile comedian Bana supplants cute, whimsical Paul Hoganesque Australian stereotypes with a steely cold ruthlessness we have not seen since “Mad Max”. With dead eyes, Bana portrays Mark “Chopper” Read both in and out of prison. Panache, the sine quo non of a cult classic, flows in waves throughout the movie. From bolt cuttering a victim’s toes, to ordering his own ears sliced off to avoid a prison hit, Chopper Read is a true original, in the utmost sociopathic sense of the word. The film does take artistic license with actual events, but is not billed as a biography. Rather, the film is simply a medium to convey a sense of an acutely disturbed soul.

Chopper Read himself wrote the underlying book upon which this movie was based, but Bana and Director/Screenwriter Andrew Dominik are the true auteurs of this work. Bana’s lifeless visage and curiosity over the psychopathic actions of his own character frame well within Dominik’s artful guidance. It is not so much the actions themselves: the stabbings, beatings, shootings, sex and drugs that transform the audience into perverse rubberneckers. It is much more the riveting direction and the particular portrayal of the man himself that lends the film such magnetism. As cult status has painted Chopper Read much larger than life, it would have been easy to overplay or “camp up” the role. Bana does neither.

In scenes such as the fight with his girlfriend, Bana seamlessly vacillates the character between predator and prey, embodying the parody that is Chopper. With the inspired assistance of Simon Lyndon, playing Chopper’s erstwhile friend, the film captures a slice of life we all yearn to see and then try to pretend does not exist. Watch this film. You will not forget it. Be forewarned, the violence in this movie is nothing new, but the callousness with which it is delivered should have earned this film an “NC-17” rating. This film is not recommended for anyone under the age of eighteen.

Format: Color, Widescreen Anamorphic, Closed captioned.
Sound: (DTS 5.1 Surround), (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Extras: Director and author commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes "Weekend with Chopper," Eric Bana meets Mark "Chopper" Read, trailer.