Chopper (Rental) (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Trailer-Silent Partner Dolby Digital Trailer-Train Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	90:08 (Case: 93)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Andrew Dominik
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Eric Bana Simon Lyndon David Field Dan Wyllie Bill Young Vince Colosimo Kenny Graham Kate Beahan
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	Rental	Music	Mick Harvey

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Mark "Chopper" Read is one of the most infamous criminals in Australian history. It is not necessarily his exploits that have led him to this post, but the phenomenal success that his 10 novels outlining his "recollections" of his exploits have enjoyed on Australian bestseller lists. The filmmakers point out at the outset that this movie is not a biography, but I'm sure that it is no less accurate than the books upon which it is based, and Chopper spins a good yarn about a man who has entered the Australian public's consciousness with a reputation of violence, brutality, and a truly wicked sense of humour.

    The movie alternates between three points in time: Chopper as a young man in Pentridge prison, freedom for a time, and then back at Pentridge, watching, with respectful warders, a story on him on a television current affairs show. Witin these parameters, Dominik shows us a brutal view of prison, violence and paranoia, all apparently from within the head of the lead character. And what a performance Eric Bana produces as the manically disturbed criminal: the term "tour de force" is often bandied about with abandon, but Bana really is something special here, moving from brutality, to humour to witty storytelling with ease and always within character. It would appear that I'm not the only one who liked the performance: Bana picked up an AFI for his trouble, as well as a role in Ridley Scott's next epic, Black Hawk Down. Mention must also go to Simon Lyndon (Sample People) and Vince Colosimo (The Wog Boy) for their outstanding performances in support, with the former also earning an AFI.

    The directing and cinematography is stylistic, almost to an extreme, and puts Chopper in art-house territory, but importantly, it never distracts from the underlying story, which is this movie's forte. In fact, it heightens the sense of unreality that such graphic violence often brings, in an original, but not gratuitous way. In fact, in one of the most violent scenes, the action is hidden behind a wall, and this only serves to make the situation still uglier. Barely a scene is shot in natural light: rather, coloured filters have been used that range from a cold blue in prison scenes to olive green, warm yellow and blood red. The scenes set in Bojangles nightclub also have their own particular style, with strobing lights fleshing out the paranoia of the lead character.

    Andrew Dominik is an exciting young filmmaker, and I hope that he has a future to match his promise. Eric Bana is already going on to bigger things as his performance deserves. Despite the hype, Chopper is one of the finest Australian movies that I have seen for a long time: it brilliantly juxtaposes the brutality, violence and paranoia that the makers have seen in Mark Read with hs undoubted personality, humour, and ability to be quite the charming witty raconteur, whilst leaving it to the viewer to decide what to make of this complex enigma.

Video

    The video is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and features 16x9 enhancement. I got the feeling that the image could have been a little sharper, but it was filled with detail. The starkly colourful filters used didn't allow much in the way of shadow detail, however, this was exactly as I remembered it. There was no low-level noise or grain to mention.

    As noted above, the entire movie has a washed-out feel, with blue, green and yellow filters having been used to give the film a surreal, unnatural feel. Thus although the colours weren't overly vibrant, the challenges that the filters threw to the transfer were handled brilliantly, and again, this is exactly the way that I remember the cinematic exhibition.

    I did not see any MPEG artefacts, and only one very minor instance of aliasing at 60:22on a heater. I also only counted two solitary white flecks as far as film artefacts go, in an impressive effort.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    With the exception of the various characters that suffered speech impediments and other drug-induced problems with speaking, the dialogue was clear and easy to understand. There were no audio sync issues.

    Mick Harvey (Ghosts... of the Civil Dead), better known as one of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, provides a haunting score, which at times consists of nothing more than a low rumble, but at other times, is as moody and threatening as the main character himself.

    Aggressive use of the surround channels really heighten the claustrophobic feel of many of the prison scenes. They are also well-utilised for other atmospheric effects such as the nighclub scenes, and for traffic and the like, and for various directional effects such as gunshots and screaming.

   The subwoofer got a reasonably good workout, with much shooting, banging and other violence going on. There were a number of instances of low rumbling that added atmosphere, and it also added some bottom end to the parts of the score and in movie music (which included Rose Tatoo, Cold Chisel and Renee Geyer) that called for it.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Trailer - Silent Partner (1:07)

Trailer - Dolby Digital Train

    The Region 2 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

• Theatrical Trailer
• Filmographies
• Director's Commentary
• Commentary by Mark "Chopper" Read
• Deleted Scenes
• Interview with Mark "Chopper" Read

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall