![]() The film covers almost 20 years of Read’s life, with a framing device set in prison in 1991 as he watches himself being interviewed on television while laughing and joking about his appearance and the news reporter who interviewed him. On this occasion, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to imagine the filmmakers were worried about Chopper’s satisfaction with how he comes across in the film, and potential risk of retribution – legal or otherwise – at his hands. Now, a caption like this usually means there are several people still alive who will be unhappy with their portrayal in the film, or the real-life narrator is so unreliable that the filmmakers want to distance themselves from risk of legal retribution. “This film is a dramatisation in which narrative liberties have been taken. The film opens with the following caption… It’s a reputation well-earned, as a notorious streetfighter, gang leader, kidnapper, torturer and robber of drug dealers, who spent most of twenties and thirties in and out of high security prisons (where he also led gang wars and multiple acts of violence throughout his sentences). It’s a reputation and nickname he cultivates and relishes as he imagines himself to be the top dog of the criminal underworld in Victoria, Australia. Mark Brandon Read is a career criminal known as Chopper to his friends, his enemies and police. Prior to this, my only experience of Australian independent film was Mad Max, and there are arguably links between the two – specifically blistering performances from young leading men and sudden bursts of shocking violence – and remember Bana’s performance in particular being particularly strong.Īs always, the Late Review will discuss the film in levels of detail which could be considered spoilers, so if you’re looking to avoid that, scroll down to the next heading. ![]() Particularly, saying someone’s “done themselves a mischief”, whenever they take a knock (though thankfully never in the same circumstances as the characters in the film!). Presumably because it’s an Australian film, but whatever – I got a couple of free tickets and went with my housemate to see it over a few points of weak lager.Įlements of it have stuck with me for the twenty-odd years since seeing it. I was in my first year of uni when Chopper came out, and even though there was a wonderful independent cinema in the city, it got its first screening at the local Walkabout bar. These are fascinating, but also pretty terrifying to know just how scary this guy was in real life. The disc itself has animated menus(!), deleted scenes, a pair of commentaries – one with writer/director Andrew Dominik and another with the real-life Chopper Read himself – as well as a series of short clips with star Eric Bana and Dominik getting to know Read at his farm two years prior to the film being released. Looks like I bought this from a Blockbuster in the early noughties – there’s a sticker on it marked up as September 11, 2001, but I suspect that’s the release date rather than the date I bought it. I was asked if I thought it would be a good idea to invite Mark to be the first guest on the first show.“Keithy’s done himself a mischief!” The Disc In 1998, I received a phone call from a researcher for the brand new ABC comedy/talk show program McFeast Live, hosted by the sassy Libbi Gorr. Released from prison, he became hot property in the media. Slowly it was falling into place, until Chopper nearly blew the whole thing. The fear was the movie would glamourise a living crook and put taxpayers’ money in the pocket of a gangster. The rookie director and the controversial subject made it a slow process to convince the appropriate government-funded film bodies to invest. In the early days it was said Russell Crowe was keen to play Chopper, but after his 1997 breakout role in LA Confidential his fee would have swallowed the whole budget (then around $3 million). ![]() Two years later promoter and music agent Michael Gudinski, looking to expand his Mushroom label into movies, bought in as co-producer. ![]() ![]() The director was novice Andrew Dominik, who specialised in music videos. ![]()
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