"Chopper" (2000) Directed by Andrew Dominik

“Humanity doesn’t like me!”

Set across three very different timelines, but more importantly two very distinct and affecting Acts, this story of Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read begins with a telling “This film is a dramatisation in which narrative liberties have been taken. It is not a biography” but is based on the now best selling books written in prison by Read. Having not read any of his books I can only base an opinion upon the film itself, and what a film it is. At only 94 minutes in length and with the film’s two predominant Acts being so alarmingly effective and engaging even on repeated watch, the film really tears through it’s running time. Beginning and ending with a loop of the same interview, it’s particularly interesting watching this back to back, watching the beginning again after the end of the film if you will, as the strange narcissism of “Chopper” (Eric Bana) is put into sharper context. His character (as I’ll briefly outline below) is anything and everything, but the narcissism as depicted towards the end of the film is particularly striking.

The timelines of 1978, 1986 and 1991 are twisted but not so as to disorientate you, more a reference to Chopper’s growing notoriety and the release of his book(s) but the timelines are very distinct from each other yet share many common themes. 1978 and prison life is shot through a tinge of blue/green, de-saturated of colour especially within the cells or common areas, the colour change is clearly visible when in the presence of Prison Guards, in their Quarters or outside of the prison. This is rare however as that timeline year is almost exclusively shot within the de-saturated coloured walls of the prison. The prison uniform too is blue/green with an argument to be made that the prisoners themselves melt into the uniformity that surrounds them. The other key timeline year is 1986 and an all together brighter coloured, louder environment than that of 1978. Different settings such as night clubs, bars and houses are brilliantly depicted (Geoffrey Hall and Kevin Hayward deserve cinematography credit here) as does Paddy Reardon for Production Design. 1986 is also the only timeline whereby you as the audience are outside of the prison, however the unremitting violence, air of malcontent and anxiety remains regardless of the setting. The violence itself is in sporadic bursts of gratuitous, full on anger, bloody, and one particular early scene is particularly graphic and upsetting. Away from the violence, there is a constant pervading air of building anger which subsides, but quickly replaced again and this pattern continues throughout the film. It simply never relents.

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The above opening paragraphs are taken from my original review of "Chopper" penned and published nearly a decade ago but which can be read in full and for free via my Substack blog site and original article linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/andrew-dominik-three-21st-century-iconic-films-3fca93c77f1

This spoiler free review is also integral to volume 1 of my 7 volume series of "essential film reviews collection". Currently only available in e-book format, each exhaustive volume of multiple spoiler free film reviews is priced at £4.99 however, should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package, you can read each and every volume for free:

Volume 1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HHDL56

All 7 Volumes

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HZSTTH?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn

https://www.patreon.com/TheBlackfordBookClub
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