Chopper
2000
**
Director: Andrew Dominik
Cast: Eric Bana, Vince Colosimo, Simon Lyndon, Kate Beahan, David Field, Dan Wyllie, Fletcher Humphrys, Serge Liistro
Andrew Dominik's feature debut is a biopic of Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read, a notorious Australian criminal. He's in prison in the beginning and end of the story, which spans from the late 1970 to the early 1990s. Read is portrayed as a master of self-promotion who is willing to twist the truth or even mutilate himself for his own ends. He became a celebrity and his life ended up on the screen, which is either a brilliant ironic twist or the low point in moral degradation. In any case, both the man and the legend are highly uninteresting. Eric Bana gives a very fine performance, but Read is an unpleasant and predictably unpredictable thug. However, the cool anti-hero, the pitch black humour and the pornographic violence have ensured the film's cult status.
