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Directed by: Geoffrey Wright Starring: Russell Crowe, Daniel Pollock, Jacqueline McKenzie, Alex Scott 1992 IMDb posted: Nazi skinheads in Melbourne take out their anger on local Vietnamese, who are seen as threatening racial purity. Finally the Vietnamese have had enough and confront the skinheads in an all-out confrontation, sending the skinheads running. A woman who is prone to epileptic seizures joins the skins' merry band, and helps them on their run from justice, but is her affliction also a sign of impurity? It has been about 12 years since I first saw this movie. I decided to revisit it last night to see how well it holds up to time, and I have to say that yes, it still does quite nice. Not your average, run-of-the mill skinhead flick…this movie really never quite takes sides at all. You often find yourself in sympathy for both sides of the situation, you sort of find the human quality that the characters have. Unlike ‘American History X’, this film never really gets preachy or makes you think about the political/social backlash that makes up our racial landscape. Not sure how much tension lays in the Australian area, but I can defiantly see something like this taking place anywhere in the world. Seeing Russell Crowe as a skinny, angry, young skin bent on destruction of anything not pure is quite a sight to behold, seeing his star status these days. The other actors seem to hold the movie up well enough without too many issues, being a small budget indie film and all, and I often found myself watching the cinematography as a whole and really appreciating the small details. I wonder if this is one of those films that Mr. Crowe wanted to sort of wash under the bridge and forget about, but honestly I think this is one of his better works out there. Raw, unapologetic…hell, I believed his character. Factoid: One of the other main characters, Daniel Pollock, who plays Davey in the film, committed suicide before the film's release which is quite sad. He apparently was on heroin a lot and threw himself under a train, which I didn’t know until looking through some of the extras. Strange. He also had a real life affair with the lead female actor during the movie, which sort of colors the scenes with them in it a bit better. All in all this isn’t the best movie in the world, not even one of the best racial studies of skinheads vs “whomever”. But what it does is deliver an interesting 90 min worth of movie that is entertaining and original in a few ways without being over the top. Overall I give it a 4 RATING: 4 PROS: Nice story, not preachy, good camera use, somewhat realistic in its approach to such a topic, good fight scenes CONS: Acting leaves something to be desired overall, has some off times in the editing and script. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105275/
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Feb 13, 2006 21:23
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 07:00 |
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Definatly one of my most treasured Australian made films that I own. Crowe does a great job of playing Hando and really brought out the emotion of being the leader of a Skinhead group. It has a rather edgy sountrack, which adds to the feel of most scenes. Off topic: I actually took the time to go down where this movie was mostly filmed (The first 'base' and the train tracks they run across after the asian break in) and it's still in the same nick as it was during filming. Pros: Portrays life in Footscray rather well, Soundtrack is decent, I unlike ecko really liked the acting, probably moreso because of the laughs I got from some characters (Magoo). Cons: Pollock shooting himself because of it. Rating:4.5
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Feb 15, 2006 15:35
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