Named by THE TIMES OF LONDON as one of the most controversial films of all time, ROMPER STOMPER is everything AMERICAN HISTORY X wished it were. In not making a movie "about" skinheads, director/writer Geoffrey Wright makes the best movie about skinheads. We are put directly inside an Australian white supremacist gang and the film only gives us a troubled outsider as our in-route into the story. It's unflinching about the violent lifestyle of skinhead gangs and never forces characters to have epiphanies where they learn that racism is bad.
Hando (Russell Crowe, 3:10 TO YUMA), leader of the skinhead gang, is enraged by the growing number of Vietnamese immigrants buying property around his neighborhood. Along with his quiet right hand man, Davey (Daniel Pollock), and the rest of the thugs, he brutalizes a trio of Vietnamese skateboarders, which includes Tiger (Tony Lee), a young man who vows revenge. At the local bar one night, Hondo sets his eyes on Gabe (Jacqueline McKenzie, TV's THE 4400), a trouble epileptic girl, who has some serious daddy issues. The gang's violent attacks on the Vietnamese will have their repercussions, leading to more and more desperate actions.
The power of the film comes from its three main characters. Crowe, who lobbied hard for this early role, becomes the character, who, for the most part, is an angry child. He lives in an impoverished neighborhood with little opportunities. He doesn't get angry when a fellow skinhead joins the navy, because he understands is really they only way out. He's more interested in drinking with his friends and shackin' up with a girl from time to time. It's jealousy and a large dose of ignorance that makes him hate so much.
Pollock's Davey is your traditional follower. He's shy and has found acceptance within the gang. He does and thinks what Hondo does and thinks. However, things change when he meets Gabe. She's different than the freakish girls that hang in his circle. Her carefree, rebellious style makes him believe there might be something better to live for than the dangerously increasing violence of the gang. For Gabe, her rebellion is rooted in a bad childhood, longing for her dead mother and fighting against the abuses of her wealthy father (Alex Scott, THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES).
However, just from her attraction to the skinheads, we see that her behavior is reckless at best and suicidal at its worst. For the most part, Wright's story is a tragic gangster/ love triangle tale. He enhances the simple story with some nice visual metaphors. A burning photograph and a lost red jacket say a lot about what Gabe has traded in life when she began hanging around with Hondo and the boys. And a Nazi youth knife symbolizes in various ways what the gang has brought to both Hondo and Davey's lives. One long riot sequence between the skinheads and the Vietnamese boys is very well paced, creating tension by allowing the violence to escalate naturally instead of knocking us out with the first punch then kicking us in the side the rest of the way. Wright also works in homages to other filmic gangs from the work of Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.
Is it racist or antiracist, was the question of the day when it was released. With the way things turn out for the skinheads, one can't imagine this film being a recruiting video for the lifestyle. But without directly pointing to racism as the ultimate sin, the film does allow wiggle room for the already true believer to see Hondo as a doomed hero. Like many subtle movies, it's the point of view that the viewer brings that often determines the message they take away. We'd only have SESAME STREET if all filmmakers had to always pander to the lowest common denominator when it comes to the audience's moral maturity. With the pathetic life the skinheads lead, any thinking member of the audience will find that Wright's message is hate leads to violence and a life of violence leads prematurely to the grave.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
