With its chilling and brutal opening scene setting the tone, Romper Stomper – writer/director Geoffrey Wright’s controversial, confrontational and violent movie about a group of Neo-Nazi skinheads led by the dangerous Hando (Russell Crowe) – is an unflinching urban story with a hard edge that separates itself from the fantasy inspired cinema which dominated the Australian Film Industry in the early to mid 1990’s.

Based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray, Hando along with his right hand man Davey (Daniel Pollock) and their gang constantly torment and battle against the booming Vietnamese community who they believe are taking over Australia and robbing it of its heritage. Hanging out in their local pub, Hando spots Gabe (Jacqueline McKenzie) and epileptic who suffered years of sexual abuse from her wealthy father (Alex Scott).

She begins a relationship with Hando, which infuriates Davey who has developed strong feelings for her, leading to a bitter love triangle between Hando, Gabe and Davey.

Romper Stomper offers an intriguing view into the lives of a group of people who are constantly at odds against the world. Theirs is a life of hatred and violence, getting their kicks out of beating up immigrants, tormenting the homeless, and vandalising public property while living off Government funded unemployment payments.

Wright does well by presenting his characters not as two dimensional caricatures, but as human beings who hold a straight forward and flawed view of the world they inhabit.

Hando is the most extreme of the lot. An avid reader of Mein Kampf, he is heavily tattooed with Nazi symbols and is a collector of Nazi memorabilia, his walls plastered with pictures of his idol, Adolf Hitler. He holds a strong belief that his county is losing its heritage to the steady flow of immigrants who have chosen Australia as their new home.

Yet this leads to constant contradictions and hypocrisies found within his beliefs. Never mind the Nazi gang member using a nunchaku (a Chinese martial arts weapon made famous by Bruce Lee) to attack the Vietnamese, or Hando lashing out at his followers for eating pasta because its “wog” food (wog being a derogatory word for a person of European ancestry) even though the man he admires – Hitler – is also European.

The biggest flaw in his beliefs comes from the fact that he and his gang are direct ascendants of the original wogs, the original immigrants who settled in Australia a little over 200 years ago.                 

Crowe is excellent in his breakthrough leading role which caught the eye of numerous casting agents in the U.S. (with this performance landing him the role of Officer Bud White in L.A. Confidential). Jacqueline McKenzie exhibits great acting chops and unflinching courage with those extreme sex scenes, and Daniel Pollock proves his worth as a rising new talent, leaving this viewer wondering just where his career could have gone had he not committed suicide after filming was completed. 

John Clifford White’s eerie, pulsating score reminds of the Jaws theme with its representation of dread and danger, but this time instead of a Great White Shark it is a Great White Skinhead which is causing all the destruction.

Romper Stomper is a fascinating movie that will stay with me for a long time. It shows humanity at its most extreme, only made worse due to the possibility that there just may be a Hando somewhere in your town.