Romper Stomper

[Eirik]

Was anyone else disappointed by this movie?  All I heard were raves and how Sharon Stone saw Russel Crowe in this movie and just had to have him in her crappy western which introduced him to Hollywood.  Every critic I heard talk about it was just effusive with praise.

It was pretty good, and Crowe gave an intense performance, no doubt, but I didn't think this was as great a movie as everyone seems to be saying.  While its depiction of skinheads and the types of people who becomes skinheads seems accurate as far as I know, the movie seems to have very little to say.  The main character - Crowe's friend - bails on the skinheads for a girl and because Crowe's antics are getting too risky for him, not because he realizes there was something wrong with his previous behavior.  The movie lampoons skinheads but never truly challenges their belief system, and it spends very little time on their victims.  I also felt the ending was pretty cliche.  Not a bad film by any stretch, but given all the praise I heard before seeing it, I was disappointed.

[trekgeezer]

Crowe was on Inside the Actors Studio a couple of weeks ago and talked about this movie. He said a lot of people told him not to do it  because he ran the risk of  being pigeon holed as this type of character.

I found it interesting watching Russell Crowe  and then Tom Cruise this week  The thing they share is that neither has ever had any type of formal training as actors.

[Chopper]

i think people praised more of the film's in-your-face realisticness, not so much only it's content. i think the filmmaker was trying to show more of an objective point of view, i mean do we need to have guy who pops out of the corner of the movie holding a sign saying: "by the way, nazis suck!"
i do see what you're saying though with the lack of sympathy to the victims. overall though i liked the film a lot.

[jmc]

I thought it was pretty good, though at the end it kind of turned into a standard psycho killer type thing.

I thought it was obvious that the Nazis sucked just by their behavior in the film...it wasn't necessary to say anything else about it.   The movie wasn't really about the immigrant victims [who ended up getting even anyway] so I didn't think it was necessary to focus on them.  

I thought it was an interesting film...would like to see some of the other films by that director but I think they're only available on bootlegs.

[Ash]

I loved this film.

We must all have the rated version because when a friend from Australia watched up here while in America, she stated that there was several scenes cut out..namely in the beginning when the skinheads start harrassing the Asian kids.
I guess that in the uncut version they rape her.

Two other stand out scenes in the movie were the Asian Gang attack on the skinheads and the other scene when the skinheads break into that guy's house and tie him to the toilet. (or did they tape him to it?  I forget...it's been awhile since I saw it)



Post Edited (01-16-04 19:30)

[Chopper]

i read in the Psychotronic movie guide that the executive producer of Romper is in jail for art fraud, crazy.

[Ash]

!!SPOILER!!



The guy who stabs and kills Crowe in the end actually died of a drug overdose a few years after Romper Stomper was made.

[Mitch McAfee]

Actually ASHTHECAT, Daniel Pollock died before the film was released. Well at least here in Australia.

The director Geoffrey Wright went on to other "bigger films" such as Supernova (whoa what a stinker), before being fired. Or did he quit?

And as a bit of useless Romper Stomper trivia.... to enhance the fight scenes the sound editor mixed in sounds of fighting lions & tigers. Simple but effective.

[rombles]

You may also be interested to know that straight after this Russell went a did a movie called "The Sum Of Us" (Not sure if it ever got released in the US), as an antidote to the evil he portrayed in Romper Stomper - in this he plays a gay plumber, living with his dad.... not a bad movie, but very different to Romper Stomper (How about I leave it there, if I think too hard I'll start finding similarities between the two.... like the theme of intolerance.....)

[FearlessFreep]

Actually ASHTHECAT, Daniel Pollock died before the film was released. Well at least here in Australia.

People die earlier in Australia?