Geoffrey Wright, a former movie critic turned director, started his career with a trio of matter-of-fact movies on problematic Australian youth. First and third were 'Lover Boy' and 'Metal Skin' , but it was the middle feature that brought attention and lots of it.
UK Special Edition
In 1992 'Romper Stomper' was released to a bombardment of critical uproar and praise. There seemed a mixed audience reaction to the moral ambiguity of portraying a bunch of white supremacists without adding a preaching moral quota. This is sad and unjust and seems to miss the point. The film follows a group of Neo-Nazis over the course of a week in the suburbs of Melbourne. It does not need to state with large neon signs what is right and what is wrong, after all, you yourself the viewer can decided on that. At the end of the movie it does show what this type of lifestyle can and does bring, as the group are all either jailed or dead, emotionally or literally. The opening is a straight reference to 'A Clockwork Orange' but exchanging the political unrest of 70’s Britain to racial unrest of 90’s Australia. It is slightly marred by some embarrassing racial stereotypes although Wright would like you to think differently on the commentary.
Hando
We are introduced to Hando (Russell Crowe in an award winning and what many call his international break though role) and his gang of attention seeking misfits. This is not a film about skinheads but rather about a group of misguided reckless youths who live in a skinhead culture. This has been tried several times in movies, and mostly failed with the exception of the hard-hitting 'American History X' and the grimy 'Made in Britain' . Tattooed, Doc Martin'd and spouting lines from ‘Mein Kampf’ Crowe is simply superb as the hate filled moody Hando and he leads his group in a racial war with the Vietnamese society and eventually to self destruction. There’s plenty of violence and the hand held camera work places you right in the midst of the sticks, knives and bloody punches.
Gabe and Davey
Hando and Co feel their territory is being taken over by the Vietnamese and start picking on any stray Asian individual. They show their bullying ways right from the start and to each other and when their victims group together a running battle ensues. It’s amongst this that the film changes pace. Gabe (played with nativity by Jacqueline McKenzie) a young blonde, bored rich girl who wants a bit of bad takes up with the bullying band. She is firstly a faceless truss for Hando and then befriends Davey (the tragic Daniel Pollock), Hando’s right hand man. This goes into Shakespeare tragedy territory as Gabe forces the friendship to breaking point. Living like squatters and fleeing from the law and retribution the band is reduced in number one by one.Its low-budget 16mm feel does not hamper the film and gives it a more gritty edge. John Clifford White does a grand job of the music, it is worth listening to the audio commentary for his inspiration for the punky tunes.
US Special Edition
This is indeed a ‘Special Edition’ but perhaps not quite a special package. Never has Romper Stomper looked and sounded so good. The print has been cleaned up and tweaked both in audio and picture quality and this differs from the US Special Edition in this way. The US edition was only digitally re-mastered with some minor restoration, but here it has been tuned up, coloured adjusted and some effects enhanced with the score and soundtrack banging away like hellcat let loose on a hot tin roof. Before I start and say 'Buy ! Buy ! Buy !' the UK edition for the definitive ‘Romp’ there is a slight flaw here. The US Special Edition does have a host of extra features of which only a few have made it across the pond. Gone is the music only track. Gone are the interviews with the hindsightful Wright in 2000. Gone is the theatrical trailer. Gone is the restoration comparison featurette but that is no great deal.What’s new here is the audio commentary is now with Wright and fellow crew members Bill Murphy (Editor), Daniel Scharf (Producer), Chris Miller (Make Up) and White. This is a big improvement over the US Wright only commentary, which sounds like someone speaking into a tin can in an empty warehouse. Although the commentary is full of insightful and interesting snippets they are episodic and the stop/start and long silences hinder the pleasure factor.
Back are the interviews with Wright and three of the principles, all shot around the time of the movie in 1992. These are the same on both versions.
In the UK edition Paul Macdonald, from the Melbourne Salvation Army centre, is also interviewed. Chatting about the credibility of the characters of the movie. This is a nice outside point of view.
'Behind the Scenes Photo' shoot is exactly what it says and then there are two picture galleries to page through again available on the UK edition only.
The menus are great on both versions but I do like the beer can crunching, glass shattering, slowed down, monster bellowing, graffitied, expletive shouting UK one as looking that much more on the raw and brutal side of things.
UK extra free
For a full listing of special features please check the item in our archive.So taking that the UK had only a no frills, gutless, extra-free, bad print and Dolby 2 channel disc beforehand, this is more than a welcome addition.
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