One of my all time favorites.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

I'm sorry, but this was an incredibly hateful movie where the persecuted Melbourne skinheads go all out against the Australian- Vietnamese community (and by extension anyone who looks Asian). What a nuanced script I guess. I can only wonder how the Australian-Vietnamese actors were sold the script. Was there full disclosure by the casting director? I know the actors are professionals, but did they experience a sinking feeling seeing the actors playing skinheads on set? Did the Australian-Vietnamese actors get an invite to the movie's premiere? Or were they collateral to the script?I also wonder how Hando and Co felt towards the LGBTI community. Did they express anger and bigotry to gays, lesbians, etc? Maybe a sequel, say Romper Again, can examine how the next generation of Hando's ilk feel towards gay marriage and so on. Hopefully the LGBTI community(ies) don't feel threatened by people like Hando, et al.

Unless you're curious to see Russell Crowe's feature debut, and/or are really, really into violence, I see absolutely no reason whatsoever to view "Romper Stomper". Russell Crowe (and the fact the film is about gang violence) is essentially one of the reasons I wanted to see the movie. Sadly, I didn't much value the film. Yes, it was made in Australia (and was made on a low budget), but so what? That's no excuse for a poorly made one. I enjoyed parts of it, but the film as a whole almost tested my patience. The gang members (including Gabe, the only female) are completely one- dimensional. In fact, if you think about it more, they seem to exhibit no dimensions, whatsoever. Oh yeah, the girl has a couple seizures throughout the film. Why? Don't ask. It's never a good sign when a movie feels like an eternity and you find yourself wondering now much time is up. Too much stomping here, and not nearly enough romping. Or is it the other way around?** out of ****

In the decaying urban squalor of Melbourne's back streets a gang of racist Skinheads live out a crude existence of nazi-rock parties, heavy drinking, and brutal assaults on immigrant youth. Led by psychotic neo-nazi Hando, the gang comprises Davey (his best mate), Bubbs (the underage mascot), Sonny, Cackles, Brett, Champ and Luke, along with their female 'camp-followers' of two dubious Goths and some tough-talking Skin-Girls. Several scenes (one presumes intentionally) eerily remind of "A Clockwork Orange" which adds marvellously if not chillingly to its overall tone, although the film is otherwise a piece of no holds barred realist cinema.When Gabe, a lost soul and deeply troubled young woman, strays into a back-street pub claimed by the gang as their hangout, the subtle cracks in the dynamics between Hando and Davey gradually unfold. As no-less a violent and unrelenting racist as Davey is, he is evidently a gentler more mild personality than Hando, and is to a large extent in Hando's shadow. As Gabe gets it on with Hando becoming the gang's latest auxiliary, Davey is smitten and his interest is not lost on Gabe, who for her part at least encourages his attention…if not craves it.Then a vicious attack on two immigrant men, which starts as an impulsive act of 'political activism', becomes the beginning of the end for the Skinhead gang and for the relationships between Hando, Davey and Gabe. After a terrifying mass fight against an overwhelming mob of Vietnamese men, which towers leagues above anything I've seen in any other 'gang film' and which arcs the entire middle of the movie, the Skinheads end up well and truly on the run. Resorting to basic human instincts and no longer able to conceal their worst personal defects (or in Davey's case, his affections for Gabe), the remnants of Hando's gang try to survive the dire circumstances their actions have brought upon them, and as they continue a catalogue of lawless deeds against those perceived as their enemies, the proverbial time-bomb continues to tick. One by one they fall, as Hando's once iron grip slips to sub-gutter (quite literally in one scene) leadership, forcing Davey to abandon his 'idol' and attempt to go it alone. With a tragically magnificent finale, this is a timeless story which delves into the raw and ugly of our times.

I remember when this movie came out in the cinema, it was both praised and attacked for its violence. Then when it came out on video, my group of friends watched it and loved it so much that they got themselves a copy of it to watch it constantly. The video then went missing after somebody lent it to their boss.When I first watched Romper Stomper, I watched it through the eyes of a lout, and thought that it was cool. This time I watched it as a piece of literature and suddenly saw that it is a superbly crafted film with very deep characters. The film revolves around a gang of skinheads who live in Footscray, an industrial suburb in Melbourne. The leader of the gang is Hando (Russel Crowe), a neo-Nazi, and his side kick is Davey, a more quiet and passive skinhead. One day in the pub they meet Gaye, a young girl who just left her boyfriend and is looking for excitement, so she hooks up with Hando.It is the characters that really make this movie. The first thing to look at is Hando, because his personality makes up the personality of the whole gang. He is the leader and what he says, goes. Hando is a nativist, meaning that the only native race in Australia is the WASP, the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. His neighbourhood is being bought out by Vietnamese and this he resents. He believes that Australia is a white nation and the Asians are corrupting it, so they make a habit of beating them up. Hando is fighting a war that he cannot win, because the more he attacks the Vietnamese, the angrier he makes them, and in the end he brings the whole community onto his gang. This riot signals the beginning of the end of his gang because up until that moment they have not been defeated.Hando suffers from a fatal flaw, and that is his obsession with his hatred of anything Asian. At the opening of the film, he encounters a couple of Asian girls at the railway station, so he and his gang beat them up. This is not a noble thing to do, but rather the result of an obsession. The furthest extent of his flaw is during a break-in he sees a Japanese car, so he turns his mind from the job at hand to totally decimate the car. This leads to the owner of the house getting to them with a gun forcing them to flee and leaving all of the stuff behind.Hando is the ultimate in self-centeredness, yet he refuses to acknowledge his flaw. When Gaye exposes his flaw to him, instead of listening to her, he throws her out. In fact, his obsession leads him to severely disrespect the woman that is supposed to be his girlfriend. When she cooks dinner, instead of eating it, he attacks it for being Italian and throws it away. Yet without his gang, Hando is nothing. As we watch his gang diminish, we see the once proud and menacing figure that is Hando also diminish. His clothes become more ragged and his appearance more desperate. The scene when he arrives in Davey's bedroom after his gang are all gone depicts a man who has lost everything. And his final death, by the standard issue Hitler Youth knife, is fitting for one who followed the world view of Adolf Hitler. Even then the knife was made in 1944, at a time when all was lost for Germany.Davey is Hando's best friend, yet rather than equals, he is the one that follows Hando everywhere. Hando treats Davey as a child, and in a way he is. Davey does not have the burning passion that Hando has, instead he quiet and very submissive. Yet Hando realises that he needs Davey's friendship. He lets him go easily, yet when his gang is all gone, he comes crawling back to him. Davey claims to be Hando's best friend, yet there seems to be little interaction between them until right at the end. Hando does father Davey, as seen when he makes Davey comfortable after finding him passed out on the stairs. Yet it is the scene of the beach when we really see the finest interaction between Hando and Davey.Hando is the one who has all the words, and his words work to sink deep into Davey's minds. Hando believes that Davey needs him and tries to convince him to dump Gaye, for she is only a burden too them. It is not Davey that needs Hando but rather Hando that needs Davey. As mentioned earlier, without his gang, Hando is nothing, and it is when his gang is gone, Hando comes crawling to Davey to plead with him to join him. Even then, Hando kills a service station attendant to force Davey to stay with him. Davey is easily manipulated and persuaded, and it is because of this that Hando wants him around because he knows that Davey won't speak back to him.Romper Stomper is seriously a superb movie. The script is finely crafted and a lot of thought has been put into the characters, their relationships, their traits and their flaws. Some have claimed that there is a lot of Hollywood sensationalism in the movie, but after watching it recently I am very much inclined to disagree. This is not a Hollywood movie, nor is it a movie exploring the world of Skinheads and squatters, but it is the tragic story of Hando who, through his obsession, brings destruction not only onto himself but onto all of his followers.