Midweek Mention... Chopper

Chopper

Sidey: Chris is going to talk us through the film Chopper with with accompaniment from Daniel.

Cris: Oh, you've not watched this either?

Sidey: I've not watched this. No, I didn't have time 'cause it's my birthday week. I didn't have

Pete: going on about

Sidey: But Dan has seen it. And you have seen it.

Dan: I've seen it, mate.

Cris: I've seen it too, mate.

Dan: Well, he's fucking violent fucker, isn't

Cris: Yeah. And quite confusing at times.

Dan: Yeah. This is the story of notorious convict felon and criminal. Yeah. Criminal.

Cris: the most notorious criminal in the history of Australia.

Right.

Dan: Australia according. And he's I

Cris: Mark Brandon Reed.

Dan: yeah.

Cris: Actual name.

Dan: He has kind of, he's passed away now. Eric Banner played him in this film.

Sidey: Yeah. Breakthrough role, right?

Dan: Yeah. You've gotta say that. Well, he'd been in a few other things, but breakthrough role certainly. 'cause we'd seen him in

Sidey: other things.

The

Dan: White Castle or something?

We'd seen him in the Australian comedy.

Cris: I dunno. For,

Sidey: I know, I know the one you mean. Yeah.

Cris: for me, this was the [00:01:00] one that I knew Eric Banner from. I didn't know him from, from anything else.

Sidey: This one put him above the parapet.

Dan: Yeah. I mean, potential

Sidey: death trap,

Dan: Potential death trap. Just getting in into this character because he did meet

Sidey: Chopper.

Oh, he lived with him for a couple days or weeks or something to vibe with him. Spent

Dan: time with him and chopper took great delight. You can catch those clips on YouTube of him showing him what he exactly did with a knife and everything. And just being really up close to somebody. So,

so dangerous.

Sidey: And this is an adaptation, I think, of his own book, isn't it?

1. One

Cris: of the books? Yes. Because we have the the disclaimer at the beginning that this is not. Exactly what happened in his life. I, I can't remember the exact text, how it says, but this is an adaptation of a fictionalized right version of, of mark Brandon Reed's

Sidey: life.

Yeah. Yeah.

Cris: Do not take this as an

Sidey: as

Dan: not The

joy

Cris: Yeah. This is not exactly how it happened. [00:02:00] They, they kind of do obviously the same, like most of the movies, right? They're not gonna put the

thing exactly how it happened. It starts really, really quick and it starts really. Aggressive because there's a prison scene where there's a line and it's chopper and there's another guy, Keith, some ginger fella, who keeps saying, don't cross this line.

And they kind of have a back and forth the prison,

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: do you, blah, blah. What are you gonna do? All that stuff. And, and he's like, you know, this is the line. You don't cross you, you don't cross this line. This is the dockers and painters. Gang or whatever, and chopper's like, oh, I'll show you one day. And then the next day he just kind of wakes up.

You expect to be the same confrontation or whatever. He just goes and just stabs this guy 15 times.

Dan: Yeah. He is got no real respect for authority or people telling what he can and can't do. And he's just kind of going, oh, he seems to, you know, when they come and try and mop him up this guy and take him away, the guards, he is like, oh, he Got [00:03:00] himself in a bit of a pickle there. You know,

Cris: Honestly, he just,

Dan: switches like that, he's just, you know, wasn't me.

Cris: And it

Sidey: was violence is, is, no, ain't no thing to

Cris: Yeah. And it's him in prison with his gang composing of two people, Jimmy and some other guy. The one that stutters, Dan, I think his name

Dan: blue Bluey.

Cris: Bluey, yeah. Sorry.

Sorry.

Dan: and yeah,

Cris: It

is them three against, and the dockers and painters, obviously, I didn't really look into it, but apparently it's a gang or was a gang all over Australia. They were quite Yeah, well known.

And, and that was a,

Dan: it. Mark

doesn't fancy it like, you know, so, he, he's a suicide mission.

He got up against all these guys, just the three of them. So he's, he's not up for it. So, chopper shanks him. You're not with me, you're against me, kind of thing. Loyalty is everything and interesting this guy's life because he hadn't really seen out of prison for. I think 18 months between, he was like 20 and 38 [00:04:00] or, you know,

something

Sidey: all the time he had out.

Dan: It was just always inside. And he actually went inside for like fucking over other criminals really, you know?

Cris: And that was what he was known for. Really? He would just beat up and mug off drug dealers,

Sidey: Oh. Like Omar,

Cris: He was, and he claimed himself to be a bit of a Robin Hood. Yeah. He was like, well, the police doesn't really want me because I do their dirty work.

And they're like, there's no agreement between the police and you. Yeah, but they'll be all right with

Sidey: it,

Cris: you know, it's like, eh,

Dan: such confidence in himself. I mean, it a real tough childhood if, you know, dragged up in and out of foster care in

Sidey: homes,

Dan: mental institutions things.

it

Cris: it's, it does say if you, I read that his Wikipedia page, I know it's not gospel, but it does say that he was abused as a child.

And so, so you kind of get, and, and by. Just by reading and by watching this film, I can believe that he probably had a bit of schizophrenia. He was a bit of paranoia. He had

Sidey: all, all these conditions,[00:05:00]

Cris: you can't be a normal person and

Sidey: commit carry on like this. Yeah. This violent

Cris: acts. The next morning in prison, he sees the guards like the, all the guards take him in to the head.

Guy, the whatever, the warden, and they're like, look, you, there's, there's rumor that there's a $10,000 reward from the painters and dockers. And he is like, oh yeah, well you need to transfer me. Then he is like, you know, we can't do that. This is a maximum security prison. You try to kidnap a judge you are not getting anywhere else because this is the only place where we can keep you.

And,

At the same time his, he tries to create this plan with his two mates to attack everyone.

Dan: Yeah. Well that, that's it. And that's where Jimmy actually shanks Mark and then cuts his

Cris: Yeah. His best mate goes. But it's like it, it's one of those brutal scenes where he just kinda sits there and the guy just stabs him, stabs him again, stops him again.

He just sits there and he's like, he's. I don't really, he's [00:06:00] incredulous that his mate just stabbed him four times and he just sits there. You can see blood kind of gushing out from his belly and he just, did you just do that? I just kidnapped that judge to put a sentence Who was gonna put a sentence in you and you're doing this to me.

I don't understand. And he just hugs him. It's really, it's really, really bizarre.

Dan: Yeah, the, the, this is it. So he, he was in prison. It's revealed around that part that he's doing 16 and a half years for attempting to kidnap the, the judge that was gonna put his mate down like that was gonna happen. They just put another judge on. Do you know what I mean? It, it was like absolutely crazy.

But that was. Loyalty. You are not gonna put my motor away. And now this same mate is stabbing him.

Sidey: Right.

Dan: And he just can't believe it, like,

Sidey: believe it, like, you know. Mm-hmm.

Dan: And and then this guy doing the stabbing cuts himself so he can claim self-defense. This again, I guess is his chopper's version of events.

Cris: Yeah. [00:07:00] That's how he wrote in the book. Obviously it doesn't, I'm not saying that's how it happened. That's what happens in the film. And shortly after. Is the, they, he meets a lawyer. He's, he's, this is the, the paradox. That's, that's why I think he's also, he was also bipolar because in this film he's a criminally insane person, but he also, when he meets a lawyer, whatever the lawyer tells him, he's very lucid and he.

Clearly gets everything that the lawyer

Sidey: right?

He understands.

Cris: the lawyer says to him like, ah, your mate cla applied for the victim's reward or something like that, claiming that because you attacked him first, he should get $5,000 reward. And then he's like, oh, so, but he attacked me first, so can I file for And because obviously he's smarter when they go to court. His mate wears a suit and he just does the comedian side in, in court where he is like, look at him. He's, he claims I did all this for him. I even lend him that suit he's wearing because he was come here looking like a donut or something like [00:08:00] that.

And his mate's like, and he is like, is that true? Yeah, it's his suit. And he is like, what?

Dan: Yeah, he, he's he's, he's pretty clever with it. He, he's also trying to negotiate a change of prisons at one point, isn't he?

Yeah. And the board declines, so he does what any normal

Cris: he said, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll get out of that wing.

You. I'll, I'll show you. I'll get outta that wing.

Dan: I'll

do it. I'll definitely get out, you know. I'll tell you what. And he gets a mate, and this is one of the scenes that he goes through with Eric Banner.

As they're talking through the film, he goes, so I've told this guy to cut off my ear.

Sidey: full Van Gogh.

Dan: Yeah, like cut off and he's going and he's doing it all really slowly, like, you know, and he goes, just fucking take it off. Like, you know, and yeah. So he gets him to, and he, in the end, he kind of rips off, I think both

Cris: Both ears. Yeah.

Dan: and

Pete: is this, these, did that [00:09:00] actually

Cris: That actually happened.

Dan: you can see him years

Cris: you look on the Wikipedia,

Pete: can't see him. He's not here

Cris: his Wikipedia page, the only picture he's got is with the look, you know, when you see something and it just doesn't look

Sidey: normal. Yeah, yeah.

Cris: But the fact is he is missing most of his ear, so his

Pete: like Nick Lauder.

Cris: Yeah. His head doesn't look like a normal human head because he doesn't have the ears on him.

Dan: Yeah. He's

Cris: And that means the,

Sidey: does that get him out?

Cris: Yes. Because the warden and he's, you can see him with the towels around his head. He's like, I told you, I'll get out. Ha. It's just like, fucking, alright.

and then after that it's, it kind of goes to when he finally finishes his stretch and he goes outside and he goes back to his dad.

Yeah. But first he goes to see his Mrs.

Dan: Who's been playing away.

Cris: Yeah. And she, well, she works in a brothel.

Dan: so she's

Sidey: occupational. He's gonna take, he's gonna be fine with that. I'm, I'm assuming.

Pete: Yeah.

Dan: Well, there's one of his mates a particularly memorable scene. One of his [00:10:00] mates or one of the guys that he, he knows has, has been with, is it Tina?

Cris: some

Sidey: Tan.

Tanya.

Cris: yeah.

Sidey: Yeah.

Dan: Tanya.

And so he goes to her house. her mom's house. It's just, you have to laugh 'cause it's just fucking crazy what he does.

So he goes in there and she obviously knows he's fucking angry and the mum comes and she's going, you've gotta go Mark, mark. You've gotta go. And he's going, look, we just, I'm not gonna hurt her. I'm not, I just want, just want a word. And he grabbed her by the hair and he's clearly hurting her and her mum's going.

What are you doing? What are you doing? She manages to get away, run up the stairs, try and lock the door of the bathroom. Yeah. But.

He gets there before she can do it. Not that a door would've stopped him. And then he repeatedly kind of punches her in the face a few times going, what? Look what you made me do.

Look what you made me do. [00:11:00] The mom comes try and stop it. He sticks the nut on the mom and he goes, see what you've done

Cris: Now you upset your mom,

Dan: mom's Upset.

And it's like, oh my God, this guy is just absolutely.

Cris: and look, the, the idea is you got, I'm not laughing because he beats these women.

Yeah. It's just so ridiculous that you can only laugh. Right. It is just,

Dan: yeah. It's dark comic

Cris: way he says it is almost, no, your mom's upset. You made your mom upset. As if it was her fault that he headbutted her mom.

Dan: No.

Cris: No. And there's a recurring story about a guy that he shot in his groin before Ne Bartos.

Yeah, Neville Bartos before he went inside. And then when he goes outside, he's paranoid that people are looking at him. He is like, why is everyone staring at me? And as Mrs is, she's quite cool about it. She's like, look. Why would anyone not look at you? You are just, you look like a maniac who's have his ears chopped off.

So of course people are [00:12:00] gonna stare at you. And this Neville Bartos guy, it transpires, he's the biggest speed dealer. Yeah. In Melbourne. And he keeps saying he's paranoid. He's like, oh, that guy, he's, he's got, he's got it against me. He wants revenge. The guy's like, I'll buy you a bottle. Don't worry about it, mate.

I got remuneration, whatever the recomp, the compensation for the fact that you shot me in my groin. He walked with a limp, but he still, the guy's, he actually. Obviously genuinely is terrified by this guy. And also he's just like, I'll buy you some drinks. He's got money, he's doing well. He's like, I'll buy you drinks.

Dan: trying to, trying to pay

Cris: Just, just, I'll respect you. There's no problem. And he keeps going back to him. Why are you looking at me? Are you, are you still upset? You're fucking upset with me, aren't you? He's like, mate, I get him another drink. Leave me alone. There's not a problem, mate. I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine.

And then he goes to his house,

to

this guy's house and he is like, you owe me money now. I heard you and he's doing,

Dan: all sat down like we are now, just sat down and they're like he goes you give us some money. And he goes, [00:13:00] I haven't got any money, mark. You know? And he goes, tell you what? You've got 20

Pete: money. I'm

Dan: 1, 2, 3. Not counting in seconds, like counting

Pete: I him quick.

Dan: 18, 19, bang.

Cris: Shoots him.

in the other groin, like the other side of the, yeah.

Dan: fucking

painful. And,

Cris: And, and his mates are like, oh, mark, what are you doing? Gotta take him to hospital. He's like, yeah, fine.

Okay. I guess we'll have to take him to hospital. He's losing blood. Fine. Okay. And

Sidey: And then

Cris: it, it kind of cuts the, the statement where he gives a statement. He's like, you saved the guy's life after you shot him. Why did you do that? you know, I didn't really want to, but I said all his mates were there and they kept banging on about it.

So I guess I saved his life, didn't I? Yeah. But almost like, yeah, I saved his life, but I actually shot him so I, I was gonna kill

Dan: This, this is the character, like throughout the film, Eric Banner

is,

Cris: him really well.

Dan: He is Chopper. I mean, you see the transformation of Eric Banner put on a load of weight. He just. [00:14:00] You know,

Cris: throughout all this, there's, he, it, it beca, it becomes more apparent that he's losing the plot and he keeps telling people when he is outside that, because he always goes against criminals. He doesn't really, he, he doesn't really hurt. Or he doesn't want to hurt any innocent people, just normal people on

Dan: scares the fuck out of him because they're all around. He doesn't mind it being in public places and everything,

Cris: But

generally he's, he's attacking or he is bothering the people that are more in with the, against the law doing illegal activities. And he's got a meeting with the police and the police says to him, look, you have to stop telling people that we give you a free hand.

You

can't, you can't just go tell people that because there's no agreement between us. And he just goes, yeah, but you like what I do? I just, you know, I do your dirty work. He's like, no, there is no dirty work.

Sidey: not how it works.

Cris: That's not what, that's not how it works. You carry on like this. We'll have to arrest you.

You'll go to prison again.

There's this, this is not an agreement. And meanwhile, there's a guy that he thinks [00:15:00] Shagged is misses, which this is another conversation that they have in the car. And he's like, who? You're shagging. You need to tell me who you're shagging. And she's like, who? You're fucking, who are you fucking? And she's like.

I work in a brothel, mark. I fuck everybody. And he has this meeting with the police and that's why I just set to Saudi yesterday. There are to you guys yesterday while he's having a meeting at the bar with these two police officer. This guy walks in with a girl. And he just takes his massive dick out and just swings it, just keeps it out at the bar.

And his, his mate just looks at him, oh, we need to go. We need to go. And he's just got his massive piece out and the police, oh, put that away, mark. Put that away. It's just,

Dan: chopper read. Yeah eventually there's a, a lady called Mandy isn't there,

Cris: Yeah.

Dan: that witnesses, him,

Cris: shooting the Turk,

Dan: shooting Sammy the Turk and Turns Crown Witness. And this is kind of how the, the film goes out and yeah. They, mark kind of beats the [00:16:00] murder charge, but he is convicted of maliciously wounding. A guy called Neville Bartos, and there's loads of stuff on the internet around Neville Bartos as well.

And he gets five years for that, doesn't he? So he just goes It's, it's like this cycle. But the interesting thing about him is I showed you just before we started the pod, is that he went on kind of Aussie TV afterwards and he went on

Sidey: seems to come sort of minor celeb. Like doing Yeah, doing little skits

Dan: a real kind of.

People's favorite, like that Robinhood character that he thought he was. And

Pete: a vigilante. Yeah,

Dan: but a comic. And as a, you know,

Pete: like a Bogan, Batman,

Dan: harden the fuck up Australia, do this,

Pete: that. That wasn't him was it? That

Cris: Yeah, that was him.

Dan: him. That's

Cris: was actually him.

Pete: I thought that was like a parody of, of him.

He's almost like it?

Yeah. It's

Dan: Yeah. That's almost, that's why it's just, it's larger than life

Pete: I, I didn't notice a lack of ears, but

Dan: No, no. Well, I think he had them kind of sewn back on, but [00:17:00] they, they at a

Cris: still not, yeah, it's

Pete: as you would.

Dan: But this is if you're really into dark, violent films that have a dark comedy appeal as well.

Cris: is.

Sorry, I, I'll just say at the end. It kind of does show you a little bit because there's an interview with a while he's in prison with this woman reporter.

He watches the interview being put on national TV or whatever, and. After that, he kind of, the camera just, he's in the cell. He watches the himself with a reporter. The, the whole interview. Well, whatever the, the snippet of the interview, what's on the tele, he watches it with the guards. The guards are quite friendly and they're like, ah, mark, ha ha ha, I'm so cool.

But then as soon as the guards leave, the lights turn off the te the tele turns off and he just sits there in his cell, just kind of not head in hand, but the, the, the camera draws out and he kind of still. This is still not funny. Right. And and he kind of sees, you kind of see that he's not

Sidey: Yeah, he is on his own. He is.

Cris: He's on his own. He is in a cell and he's not

Sidey: it's not a

Cris: all this ha [00:18:00] ha, look, I've got a King Kong written above my dick. I've got a big dick.

Sidey: it's not totally glamorized it. They do see the, the other side of it.

Cris: just, and it's, it's, that's what I mean. It's, it's also confusing for me as a viewer because it's funny with some of these things, his actions are really, really, shit, really scary. Scary and, and quite, you know, he, he keeps saying sorry to people. He's, oh, I'm really sorry man. I'm really sorry. And then he shoots them. Yeah. And it's,

Pete: obviously a tortured individual and conflicted individual as well.

Dan: But, but yeah.

Cris: It ends, the

Dan: Yeah. That's

Cris: it

really.

Sidey: I mean, he's Australian, isn't he?

Pete: Yeah. Just sounds like a regular Aussie to me.

Dan: Well, I think that's why he, he went down so well, because a lot of people could relate to him. You know, the fact that he didn't do it against innocent victims, should we say?

I mean, maybe he did. He certainly scared the fuck out of anybody that would go near him. And

Cris: and

he was convicted of domestic abuse as well, so

Dan: yeah, [00:19:00] exactly. So definitely innocent victims. Zach Tanya's mom was an innocent victim. She got the head put on her, you know, headbutt on her and everything. But as, as far as his. Kind of viewing himself, I guess he wasn't going to rob, you know, your average person that had nothing to do with, he was robbing drug dealers and, and the underworld and things, and scaring the shit outta them, which is why he thought he was doing a good job for the

Cris: police.

Yeah.

Dan: in his own bizarre mind and everything.

But yeah, enjoyed it. I think, it's definitely one that you don't wanna watch with the kids. is best you, you are in the right frame of mind for

Cris: Yeah. I, I enjoyed it. I didn't, I can't say I enjoyed his character and obviously I read afterwards more about the guy and, and it's, again, it's all conflicting feeling.

Eric Bonna plays him really well. The, the supporting actors are good. The girl that plays Tanya, she, she really [00:20:00] looks like a. Pretty much like a crackhead pzi which apparently that's what she was. It's, it's, it's I think 1997 Australian production. So you can see that it's an older film and all that.

He's really good in it. And as, as the actor and I, I always like, not necessarily a biography. Something that I can actually take from a movie. Even if it's, even if it's a, a shit movie necessarily. But at least it's about someone that actually existed. Yeah. Rather than just another film with a gun and a someone shooting.

So all in all, Dan, what would you say? Strong recommend.

Dan: Strong recommend?

Cris: Yeah.