Product Description

An extraordinary movie about an extraordinary man, the highly acclaimed and award winning Chopper is the boldest and grittiest Australian film in decades. Brimming with dangerous excitement and stunning innovation, the sensational debut from rock video director Andrew Dominik is an exhilarating sharp shock to the system revealing the no-holds barred story of the notorious Oz criminal 'Chopper' Read. Told in flashback as Read serves one of his many prison sentences, this extreme biography charts the brutal carnage and wicked sense of humour of a man who allegedly committed nineteen vicious murders and got away with it. Mixing startling facts from his nine best selling books, including 'How to shoot friends and influence people', with stylish pulp fiction to paint an astonishing portrait of a larger than life legend. Told in flashback as Read serves one of his many prison sentences, this extreme biography charts the brutal carnage and wicked sense of humour of a man who allegedly committed nineteen vicious murders and got away with with it. Mixing startling facts from his nine best selling books, including 'How to shoot friends and influence people', with stylish pulp fiction to paint an astonishing portrait of a larger than life legend.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31160 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-10-14
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A great Australian movie, Chopper is loosely based on the autobiography of career crim Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read, whose attention-seeking mix of psychotic violence and matey ingratiation made him an outcast even in the underworld and finally--with bizarre logic--turned him into a bestselling celebrity without any need for repentance and regeneration. Andrew Dominik, a music video maven making his directorial debut, wrestles the unpromising material into shape, using a striking palette of blues inside prison and sickly neons outside, wisely building the film around a terrific lead performance from stand-up comedian Eric Bana as the crook who had his own ears hacked away so he could get off a prison wing where he was marked for death and whose forceful personality means that he can always rekindle a relationship even with those to whom he has done dreadful violence in the past and whom he certainly intends to shoot, batter, rob and betray in the future--with the mildly redeeming caveat that he sometimes drives his victims to the hospital after injuring them. The movie has a lot of smart incidental detail, like the paranoid dealer who doses his dogs' water with speed, the ridiculous mix-up of an assassination set up in the wrong car park of a nightclub that has two, and Chopper's repeated mood swings in the middle of lengthy dialogue scenes that begin with conciliation and apology and pay off with doubts and eruptions of violence that leave the perpetrator genuinely regretful of what has happened.

The nicely presented DVD features excised scenes, footage that Dominik shot with the real Chopper, commentary tracks from Dominik and Chopper and the trailer. --Kim Newman

Special Features
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 9
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 2.0 English\Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Dolby Digital 5.1
Audio Commentary By Director Andrew Dominick
Audio Commentary By Mark Chopper Read
Deleted Scenes
Weekend With Mark Chopper Read Featurette
Interactive Menus

Synopsis
Australian comedian Eric Bana is Mark Chopper Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his best-selling autobiography, FROM THE INSIDE, while serving a murder sentence in prison. Beginning in the blue-washed light of a maximum security Melbourne prison, Chopper establishes his dominance with the impulsive knifing of a fellow prisoner. Vaccillating between violence and regret, Chopper apologises to his victim, but his good mate Jimmy (Simon Lyndon) later retaliates against Chopper in an excruciating contract stabbing, rife with sexual tension. Finally released from prison, the heavily-tattooed Chopper has lost the better part of both of his ears, as well as the ability to make any distinction between his own made-up stories and reality. At a nightclub with his prostitute girlfriend, Tanya (Kate Beahan), he runs into Neville (Vince Colosimo), an old victim who limps from the attack but glitters in drug-funded gold. In his paranoia, Chopper connects rumours of a new contract on his life to Neville, Tanya, and his old mate Jimmy, to whom he pays a visit and discovers a man rotting from drug abuse. Alternately wickedly funny and grotesque, CHOPPER gives no easy answer to the question of Chopper Read's motives, but his method is clear, 'Ya bash people for no reason, just to get a name for yourself'.

Customer Reviews

Enormous black comic fun.
Chopper is indeed great fun, a biopic of a questionable character that questions & subverts Chopper's account of things: how much is his fantasy here? & how much do true crime types frottage to in the spare time?- the lazy obssession with serial killers, Manson types & all...

Eric Bana's performance is great here- I was shocked to find him quite handsome in Black Hawk Down; the idea of casting a stand-up in this role is simply perfect & its a powerhouse performance equal to De Niro in Raging Bull & the exact opposite of the mannered performances fellow Aussie Russell Crowe has given of late. Bad Seed Mick Harvey supplies a soundtrack- as he did on the excellent Ghosts...of the Civil Dead (John Hillcoat, 1988); there's a suitable classic from Harvey's past used in the soundtrack: The Birthday Party's Release the Bats. This fits with the sick sense of humour I appear to adore in the Australians! Wonderfully demented...

Chopper is an interesting biopic, it deglamorises violent crime by having an irrational idiot at the centre of things- his appealing matey-style character is countered by the acts he commits. This is no lame-Tarantino/Guy Ritchie celebration of crime- there's no getting off on his actions & everything that is terrible about those two directors. I don't know about 'Best Australian Film to Date' though- films like Ghosts...of the Civil Dead, The Year My Voice Broke, Flirting & Proof are all as good, if not better. Still, a key film of recent years- worth seeing for Bana's performance alone...

Both believable and hilarious
I just chose to rent this film on a whim and once I watched it the first time I watched it again straight away. Don't make any comparisons to Tarantino please. This film has more watchability in five minutes than in his entire collection. This is funny, strange and compelling all at the same time. It really is a one off and for that reason alone you should get it.

Disturbing, yet entertaining
Mark "Chopper" Reid is not a pleasant fellow. Based on his bestselling autobiographical offerings, this movie explores the confused, violent and yet somehow endearing man who became one of Australia's most notorious criminals. Imprisoned as a young man, Mark Reid attempts to become a major underworld figure, ruthless and bloodthirsty. Yet, while his actions fit this self-made image, something in his persona prevents it from engulfing him entirely. Would a ruthless murderer shoot a man and then immediately apologize and take him to hospital? The film covers all aspects of his life, from his initial incarceration, through his single-handed attempts to rid the streets of other criminals, to his return to jail and the beginnings of his fame as an author. First time writer/director Andrew Dominik presents a gritty film which takes the viewer on an emotional rollercoaster that barely gives you time to stop laughing before being confronted with a scene of sickening violence and brutality. One of the reasons why this works as well as it does is the casting - Eric Bana is incredible as Chopper - totally believable in all his manifestations: as a simple Aussie bloke just trying to get by, as an interred prisoner trying to survive, and as a violent criminal.

This is not a pleasant movie in any sense of the word. But it is highly amusing and entertaining for those not easily offended by violence or by the controvery that might surround the "glorification" on film of a convicted criminal. Well worth seeing.