Review of Romper Stomper (1992) by Yasemin Y — 19 Jan 2016

A gang of violent neo-Nazis from Footscray, Victoria, Australia, attack two Vietnamese Australian teenagers, who are friends of Tiger (Tony Lee) in a subway tunnel at Footscray Station. The gang is led by Hando (Russell Crowe) and his friend and second-in-command, Davey (Daniel Pollock). They meet drug addict Gabrielle (Jacqueline McKenzie) the day after her sexually abusive, highly affluent father Martin (Alex Scott), has her junkie boyfriend beaten up. However, Gabrielle starts a romantic association with Hando. Some of the gang's skinhead friends visit from Canberra, one of whom has joined the Royal Australian Navy and is home on leave. After a long night of drinking, fighting, and sex, two members of the gang go to their local pub. Unbeknownst to them, the owner has sold it to a Vietnamese businessman. Upon seeing the new owner and his sons, they inform Hando. Hando and his gang arrive and savagely beat the new owner's sons. A third Vietnamese youth phones for help, before Tiger and several armed Vietnamese men descend upon the skinheads. The Vietnamese outnumber the skinheads and force them to retreat to their rented warehouse, where the Vietnamese ransack the building before setting it on fire. The gangs violent lifestyle will eventually split them up and the consequences will be harsh...

David Stratton of SBS The Movie Show praised the acting style in the film but was appalled at the level of violence, and as a consequence refused to give it a rating while fellow Movie Show critic Margaret Pomeranz gave it five stars. Stratton also described the film in Variety as "A Clockwork Orange without the intellect". Director Geoffrey Wright was so upset by Stratton's rating that he later poured a glass of wine on Stratton during a chance meeting at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. Stratton would many years later clarify his rating stating: "I think Romper Stomper was a very well-made film and an extremely well-acted film, and I thought Geoffrey Wright had a lot of talent. What troubled me about Romper Stomper was that it was made in a time, I think 1992, when there had been some racial problems with young Vietnamese people, particularly in Melbourne, and...I thought the film could stir up more violence..." When I saw "Romper Stomper" back in the early 90s I remember being hit by the violence and the destructive nature of the characters which evidently becomes the destruction of their lifestyle and lives. It´s not always spot on acting wise and the cinematography is a child of the 90s, but in general are Russell Crowe, the late Daniel Pollock and Jacqueline McKenzie strong in their performances and create interesting nuances in the storyline. The insight that love is the true path in life and not violence might at one hand feel a bit outdated as a topic, but works on the other hand well in this storyline. "Romper Stomper" is as current today as it was in 1992.