ROMPER STOMPER
Australia, 1992, 94 minutes, Colour.
Russell Crowe, Jacqueline Mc Kenzie, Daniel Pollack.
Directed by Geoffrey Wright.
Romper Stomper was the first feature film from Geoffrey Wright who directed the short drama, Lover Boy. He then went on to make Metal Skin.
There was a great deal of controversy when the film was released. It portrayed aspects of racism which were to emerge in Australian society later in the 1990s. Set in Melbourne's Footscray, the film has an early sequence where skinhead gangs pursue Vietnamese teenagers through the streets and yards of the suburb (with tour-de-force hand-held camera).
However, the film moves away from the Vietnamese themes to looking at the bonding within the neo-Nazi group and the power exercised by its lead, Hando, showing how, when friendship and humane elements enter in, the group collapses.
The film has been influenced by Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, especially in subway sequences and the robbery at the affluent house.
Russell Crowe won the AFI award for Best Actor and the film was nominated in the major categories in 1992.
1. Impact of the film? Australian controversies? International controversies - and overseas images of Australia?
2. The title and its sound and tone, violent games, kids, childishness, victims?
3. The location and colour photography, Footscray, the railway station, the streets, pubs, houses, warehouses, the contrast with the homes of the rich, suburban homes in Northcote, the road, the beach? Day and night? The colour tones of the film, blues and dark shades? The tones and moods? The atmosphere of the musical score, the songs, the lyrics and their meaning?
4. How realistic a film? How naturalistic? Exaggerated? The focus on Australian skinheads, Melbourne, the western suburbs of Melbourne? Capturing this in the film's style, action sequences, hand-held camera in fights and chases, the pace of the editing, modern and rock video styles? The texture of the film?
5. The opening, the sound, the music, the tunnel - and the visual echoes of A Clockwork Orange and the Droogs? The Clockwork Oranges of Melbourne? The confrontation with the Vietnamese, the fighting, the initial presentation of characters, their violence and racism?
6. The picture of the Vietnamese, their response, victims of racism, the physical pain in the attack, going to the restaurant, seeing their work, livelihood, life and community, language? The subtitles? The desire for revenge? Their generally quiet response, the violent response? The picture of the suburbs, life at the hotel, the selling of the hotel (and the racist issues)? Looking over the hotel, the skinheads coming in, the attack, their allies, the battle? The violent chase and fight as the centrepiece? Violence in itself, youth, social conditions for such violence, unemployment, race relationships? Hando's explanations? White Australia (and his derogatory comment on the aborigines and their being subjugated by the whites)? The need for white supremacy?
7. The picture of the gang, its fascist lifestyle and codes, images of Hitler and Nazism, swastikas? Hando and his being influenced by Hitler, reading Mein Kampf? A reader, a thinker - as typical of many right-wing youth of the '90s, intelligent, their reacting against migration, loss of jobs? Expressing the right-wing views of many Australian groups? Rebellion, the dole? The warehouse and the rooms, decor? Clothes, skinheads, style? Articulate and inarticulate? The young men and women who were following on? Hando and his hold on the gang, friends? The visitors from interstate? The commune in the warehouse together? The macho attitude of the men towards the women? The submissive attitude of the groupies?
8. The fight with the Vietnamese, the gang and the defeat, running away, the angers, the girls leaving? Stealing and the mess? Betrayal? Gabe and her coming into the group, the effect on all of them, loyalties, love friendship? Gabe breaking up the ethos of the gang and its codes, her betrayal? The police, the arrests, the deaths, the collapse of the gang?
9. Russell Crowe as Hando, screen presence, in himself, as a leader, his intelligence, his right-wing bigotry, racism, capacity for violence? His friendship with Davy? With the other men, with the women? In the bar, in the fight, his leadership, at the warehouse, his treatment of the visitors from Canberra? The encounter with Gabe, the coat, smashing the window? The sexual attraction, the dancing, the sexual encounters, the morning after? Sailor? The fight as a turning point in his life? Gabe's coming as a turning point? The Hitler loyalty, his fascist attitudes in the hotel, his brutality but the change when beaten? Ousting the Vietnamese, the talk about Wog food, the growing tensions? The decision to rob the house, the failure? His relationship with Gabe, discarding her? His reaction to the relationship between Gabe and Davy? His finally being hounded by the police, alone? The irony of the deaths, Davy going to Northcote? The escape, the killing, the beach fight and the pathos of his death - and the Japanese tourists photographing it?
10. Davy and his background, the explanation of his father, his visit to his grandmother, his brutality, loyalty to Hando, friendship? His personal sensitivity, the reaction to Gabe? The coat, washing up? Leaving, going home, his grandmother, the ride? Death?
11. The contrast with the world of Gabe, her wandering the streets, the encounter with Hando, the coat, the smashed window, going to the warehouse, her seductive attitude towards him? Her turning to Motherly, the washing up and Hando's reaction? Her relationship with Martin, the toughness, his rescuing her? The drugs? The background of the incest theme, Martin's violence towards his daughter? The robbery of the house and her betraying her father? The bar, Hando, sex, talk, hanging on, fighting, fear, the growing harshness, cooking and washing, the final decision to betray after her relationship with Davy, the end and overhearing?
12. The men in the gang, their characters, their appearance and clothes, indistinguishable from the other? Their submissiveness in being led? Their being manipulated and allowing themselves to be manipulated? The group from the ACT and their ethos? The contrast with the girls in the gang, their appearance, hairstyles, clothes, behaviour, submissive, the typical `molls'? Their being ousted and going?
13. The picture of the police - objective or not? The robberies, the violence, police anger, the siege of the warehouse? The pursuit of Hando?
14. The picture of the ordinary people of the western suburbs, the hotel owner and wanting to sell? The Asians moving in and their way of life?
15. Martin, his relationship with his daughter, brutality, saving her, paying her debts, rescuing her? His control over her? Her reaction, the robbery of the house and his experiencing the violence?
16. The gang ethos? '90s fascism in Australia, a just mirror - a necessary mirror? The irony of the ending, Hando and his being defeated, with the irony of the tourists taking the photos?
