Chopper *** (2000, Eric Bana, Simon Lyndon, David Field) – Classic Movie Review 11,659

‘I never killed anyone who didn’t deserve it.’

Writer-director Andrew Dominik’s 2000 Australian biographical crime film Chopper is a sensationalist, extreme, fact-based Australia-set drama charting the rise to infamy and time in prison of notorious criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read (impressively played by an intense Eric Bana). The film is strong and powerful, and accomplished, but hard to like.

Read’s bestselling book, From the Inside, was penned in jail during his life term for murder.

It features Eric Bana as Mark ‘Chopper’ Read, Vince Colosimo as Neville Bartos, Simon Lyndon as Jimmy Loughnan, David Field as Keithy George, Kate Beahan as Tanya, Dan Wyllie as Bluey, Fletcher Humphrys as Bucky, Robert Rabiah as Nick, Brian Mannix as Ian James, Serge Liistro as Sammy the Turk, Skye Wansey as Mandy, Renée Brack as television interviewer, Bill Young, and Kenny Graham.

The Australian Film Institute gave the film awards for Best Director (Andrew Dominik), Best Actor (Eric Bana), and Best Supporting Actor (Simon Lyndon).

Read suggested casting Bana after he saw him in the sketch comedy series Full Frontal. Bana lived with Read for two days to help him to get into the role.

The biggest production difficulty was getting permission to use the Pentridge Prison in Coburg, Victoria, which was being closed down. It one of the prisons that detained Chopper.

It is Dominik’s feature directorial debut after graduating from Melbourne’s Swinburne Film School in 1988. He went on to the Western drama film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), and the neo-noir crime film Killing Them Softly (2012).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,659

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