Legacy of a Law breaker Andrew Dominik’s Chopper Turns Twenty

‘So often, in movies, violent characters are portrayed as […] supernaturally evil or there’s [… an] ideological justification for everything they do,’ suggested director Andrew Dominik prior to the release of Chopper (2000), his debut film about the notorious Australian criminal Mark ‘Chopper’ Read. ‘I just wanted him to be a human being – sort of demystify him, in a way.’¹ Chopper’s Chopper (Eric Bana) is a violent character, to be sure, but he isn’t supernaturally evil, nor does the narrative give any ideological justification for his actions. On the whole, he’s portrayed as very much human: full of contradictions and hang-ups, some more convincing than others.

But is he demystified? It’s difficult to take Dominik at his word when we see Chopper rooted in place as he’s stabbed half a dozen times by his prison-mate Jimmy (Simon Lyndon), showing no trace of pain or fear on his terrifyingly stoic face. ‘What’s gotten into you?’ he asks after the third plunge of the knife into his belly, as if to a misbehaving pet dog; then, following a fourth stab, he offers his anxious assailant a hug. When Chopper eventually lies weakened from his wounds, it feels like a detail included begrudgingly – not out of any respect for reality (Read lost part of his bowel and several feet of intestine from the incident ), but only to prevent the film from tipping over into fantasy. The scene practically renders its protagonist superhuman, elevating him No, Read isn’t demystified; Chopper makes its titular criminal’s myth visible and palpable.