Romper Stomper

I first came across this movie while at Blockbuster like 10 years ago and decided to rent it based off of how interesting the cover was. I had previously done this with the movie Salton Sea, which turned out to be really good, so I thought I might get lucky again. I took it home knowing nothing about it, I hadn't even noticed that Russell Crowe was in it, and the movie blew me away.

The plot focuses on a group of skinheads down under as they get into trouble. The movie was obviously made on a small budget, but it only adds the down and dirty feel of the movie. It starts with the skinheads beating up a small group of Vietnamese teenagers, which leads to a showdown between the skinheads and a mob of other Vietnamese, which ultimately leads to more trouble. Along the way we learn more about the group of Neo-Nazis as they get in even worst trouble and start getting killed off. The most interesting thing about the movie is that the Neo-Nazis are more or less the good guys. Not in the sense that they are actually good, but by the end you may start to feel bad for them, despite the fact that everything bad that has happened to them is their own fault. The movie never outright tells you what to think, it simply shows you what happens and lets you draw the conclusions yourself. Parts of the movie remind me of A Clockwork Orange, and it deals with the same subject matter as American History X, but it reminds me most of the movie Trainspotting, in the way that Trainspotting shows the lives of drug addicts without outright telling you that drugs are bad. Its not like the movie needs to feed the audience any message when the movie itself is so gritty and hardcore. In fact, the movie is so hardcore that the actor that played the protagonist, who was a heroin addict, actually feel in love with his character's love interest and when she dumped him, he threw himself under a train before the film even came out. Russel Crowe wrote a song about it. That's pretty hardcore.

 Fashionably Hardcore

This movie is without a doubt at the top of my list of "great movies no one has heard of" and as it was a movie I randomly picked up to take a chance on, I hold it quite high, as not only do I like it, but I discovered it and consider it a classic from my early days of seeking out the unheard off gems that other people pass over without a second thought. All in all the movie has grit, an awesome soundtrack, fighting, sex, more fighting, racism, Australian beaches covered in blood, mall vandalism, even more fighting and senseless violence, death by cop, and seriously, a lot of racism. I watched it all the time back in high-school and college. It's just fucking great.

9 out of 10- Edited from an old review I threw up on Netflix from 5/25/06