The director says his film was sympathetic to Mark Brandon Read and ‘on his side’. It had to be – to understand his violence
Few would be unfamiliar with Chopper – both the criminal, and the movie. The former is Mark Brandon Read, the notorious Australian gangster, bestselling author and serial shit-spinner, who committed many crimes and claimed he committed many more. The latter is the New Zealand-born writer-director Andrew Dominik’s terrific 2000 drama, supercharged by an astonishing performance from Eric Bana. The film returns to Australian cinemas on 26 August in a pandemic-delayed celebration of its 20th birthday.
Making a good biopic is never easy but making one about Read posed all sorts of challenges – including how to accurately represent the life of a compulsive liar. Dominik, speaking to me over the phone from the UK, says Read “sold the myth of himself as being a kind of Robin Hood character who robbed drug dealers and gave to himself, and was protective of women, animals and small children – which was patent bullshit”.
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