So you’ve seen Russell Crowe’s latest film Unhinged and you think he’s rather terrifying. Or perhaps you remember just how physically dangerous he was as Maximus from his Academy Award winning role in Gladiator. I first discovered him in L.A. Confidential where his Bud White burned with a white hot intensity that has rarely been matched. None of those, or honestly anything he’s done since then, ever prepared me for this film.
Allow me to introduce you to Geoffrey Wright’s 1992 film Romper Stomper, where a young Russell Crowe will astound you.
Crowe’s Hando is the leader of a small band of neo-Nazi skinheads who want to do nothing more than “wreck everything and ruin your life.” Most of the time they keep that promise. Doesn’t matter who you are, if you aren’t one of them, both physically and ideologically, you’ll find yourself in their crosshairs sooner or later. Much like Alex and his Droogs from Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange, they’ve got nothing better to do with their lives than participate in a little bit of the old ultraviolence. After taking on a young woman, Gabe (Jacqueline McKenzie), into their group Hando and his boys party hard, beat the hell out of some Asians who dare exist and thrive in their country, and destroy property at an alarming rate. But when a rival group decides to fight back to claim a piece of the world as their own, the violence ratchets up and the roles they thought they had in this world turn upside down.
On the run and hiding from the law, the group quickly begins to turn on each other as members are picked off one by one, either from rivals or the law. There is only one way a film like this can turn out, but it’s a brutal and intense 90 minutes fly by as you watch it get there.
It’s not a wonder that Crowe turned out to be a star. He owns the screen each moment the camera focuses on him, often with just a look. He commits fully to the role and brings an absolute ferocity with every swing of his fists. He’s surrounded by capable actors, but they are quickly pushed aside in favor of him. Writer/director Geoffrey Wright knew what he had and wisely kept Crowe on screen for the majority of the film’s breakneck pace.
Is it a hard film to watch? Most definitely. The crimes that Hando and his boys commit are horrific, both in creed and action. Watching Gabe, a girl who has seen more than her fair share of traumas thanks to an abusive father, fall under their spell is heartbreaking, even if she tries to make good by running away with Davey (Daniel Pollock), Hando’s right hand man who begins to question their ethos. But when violence and hatred is the only way of life that they know, there is no happy ending.
Rated 4 out of 5 stars.
Romper Stomper is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.
