Mark "Chopper" Read: Eric Bana	Neville Bartos: Vince Colosimo
Jimmy Loughnan: Simon Lyndon	TV Interviewer: Renee Brack
Keithy George: David Field	Tanya: Kate Beahan
Sammy the Turk: Serge Liistro	Mandy: Annalise Emtsis
Writer/Director: Andrew Dominik

30 Second Bottom Line: A failed criminal attains cult status because of his notorious crimes and lifestyle. This is one bad dude, as he's admitted to committing 19 murders. To get transferred from his current prison location, he has a fellow inmate cut off his ears, which gives him the tag, Chopper.

Story Line: Mark Read (Eric Bana) bungles a kidnapping and lands in Melbourne's Pentridge Prison, H Division, maximum security, with other hardened criminals. Staking out his turf with another gang, he attacks Keithy George (David Field), and a rival for the title of "biggest badass," in a bloody attack with a shive.

A contract is put out on Mark; and his former confidant and close friend, Jimmy Loughnan (Simon Lyndon), is given the assignment. Mark survives the assault and Jimmy fears for his life, both then and a few years later when Chopper comes to visit him at his home, after his release from prison. Jimmy has become a hard core drug addict and lives with his pregnant girlfriend Mandy (Annalise Emtsis), who's also strung out.

While in prison, Chopper has a fellow inmate cut off his ears, after he recuperates from multiple stab wounds inflicted by Jimmy, so that he will have to be hospitalized and removed from H Division. Chopper is crazy and he feels no pain. He could have open heart surgery and skip the anesthesia. This act makes the newspaper headlines and a mythology grows surrounding what clearly is a criminal mind of epic proportions.

We take a trip inside the mind of a psychopath, as we travel with the Chopper when he's released from prison after eight years. He attacks Sammy the Turk (Serge Liistro), an old nemesis, for a reason he dreams up; beats up his prostitute girlfriend Tanya (Kate Beahan), and tells her "Look what you've done."

Tell Me More About It: When Chopper tells us that one should "Never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn," that sums up this film, that while based upon fact, has taken liberties with the truth to make an interesting movie.

Clearly, the way that certain violence is conducted and played out reflects an embellishment of the facts. But as I understand it, Chopper really did kill 19 people, so the events in the film are fundamentally true.

Eric Bana, who is Chopper, is one of Australia's leading comedians. Here, he's a very scary character. He portrays Chopper with a hair trigger wit, which is never off-target. The supporting cast offers just the right edginess and nerves to serve as surrogates for us as the audience, who never know which way his psyche is going to tilt.

What is fascinating about this movie is the `blink of an eye' time it takes for Chopper to change from "just a bloke," as he describes himself, to a person who will deliver a barrage of full arm punches to a woman for a small slight to his ego. He can just as easily go off and shoot someone because of a perceived need to either get what he wants, or just to send a message.

There is no widening of the eyes, changing of the voice, no "tell" to signal his change from rational behavior to being a crazy killer, other than his actions. Mark "Chopper" Read has become a best selling author who is currently out of prison.

If he never kills again, Chopper could become the poster boy for those who believe in rehabilitation. I'm glad I'm a 20-hour plane ride away from Mr. Read; although it's possible he's a reformed man, I would not want to be on the same continent with him.

NC-17 (sex; nudity; drugs; violence; language)

George@reelmoviecritic.com

Eric Bana: The Castle	Simon Lyndon: The Thin Red Line
Kate Beahan: Strange Planet	Andrew Dominik: Various music videos