Romper Stomper

In this Australian neo-Nazi versus "gooks" thug thriller, Russell Crowe plays head skinhead, Hando, who believes the white race is supreme. He and his cronies fight and probably kill a few Singaporeans for going to the local pub, which is apparently theirs. A chase ensues when hordes of "gooks" come to defend their countrymen. So, the skinheads are on the run, and over the course of the film they break up until it is only Hando, Gabe (Jacqueline McKenzie, who reunites with Crowe in The Water Diviner), a rebellious girl he met at the beginning of the film, and his right-hand man, Davey (Daniel Pollock), on a beach fighting among themselves.

The standout here is the fighting, and not in a good way. It is quite clearly play fighting. Blows are not landed, animated actors make unnecessary movements to aid the delay. The camera is all over the place. It makes Greengrass look like a fucking Steadicam operator! The violence is tame, at best, which is a shock because this was apparently a film surrounded in controversy upon release. The way the characters move, especially the skinheads, is odd. The film paints them as retards, many of them with weird speech, movement, and attitude.

Crowe is pretty good, I guess, but then he doesn't really have to do much performance-wise. He does have presence, though, and that is very important. McKenzie is both sweet, rebellious, righteous, and sexy. Romper Stomper does not live up to its reputation or it does not hold up in the modern era where violence on film requires verisimilitude. Whichever one it is, I did not take a liking to it.

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