49-581: Romper Stomper is a 1992 Australian drama film written and directed by Geoffrey Wright in his feature film directorial debut. The film stars Russell Crowe , Daniel Pollock , Jacqueline McKenzie , Tony Le-Nguyen and Colin Chin. The film tells the story of the exploits and downfall of a neo-Nazi group in blue-collar suburban Melbourne . The film was released on 12 November 1992. A gang of violent young neo-Nazi skinheads from Footscray, Victoria , Australia attack three Vietnamese Australian teenagers in
98-462: A better understanding of the film. According to the taxonomy, combining the type with the genre does not create a separate genre. For instance, the "Horror Drama" is simply a dramatic horror film (as opposed to a comedic horror film). "Horror Drama" is not a genre separate from the horror genre or the drama type. Crime dramas explore themes of truth, justice, and freedom, and contain the fundamental dichotomy of "criminal vs. lawman". Crime films make
147-525: A glass of wine on Stratton during a chance meeting at the 1994 Venice Film Festival . Stratton would later clarify his position: 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
196-685: A more central component of the story, along with serious content. Examples include Three Colours: White (1994), The Truman Show (1998), The Man Without a Past (2002), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), and Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Coined by film professor Ken Dancyger , these stories exaggerate characters and situations to the point of becoming fable, legend or fairy tale. Examples: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and Maleficent (2014). Light dramas are light-hearted stories that are, nevertheless, serious in nature. Examples: The Help (2011) and The Terminal (2004). Psychological dramas are dramas that focus on
245-400: A particular setting or subject matter, or they combine a drama's otherwise serious tone with elements that encourage a broader range of moods . To these ends, a primary element in a drama is the occurrence of conflict —emotional, social, or otherwise—and its resolution in the course of the storyline. All forms of cinema or television that involve fictional stories are forms of drama in
294-633: A person's life and raises their level of importance. The "small things in life" feel as important to the protagonist (and the audience) as the climactic battle in an action film, or the final shootout in a western. Often, the protagonists deal with multiple, overlapping issues in the course of the film – just as we do in life. Films of this type/genre combination include: The Wrestler (2008), Fruitvale Station (2013), and Locke (2013). Romantic dramas are films with central themes that reinforce our beliefs about love (e.g.: themes such as "love at first sight", "love conquers all", or "there
343-485: A romantic relationship with Hando, which, despite a strong start, quickly becomes dysfunctional as he becomes increasingly abusive towards her. After the gang vandalizes a shopping mall , friends of the gang visit from Canberra , one of whom has joined the Royal Australian Navy . A party at the warehouse follows. The next day two boys go to the pub, which has just been sold to a Vietnamese businessman by
392-464: A specific approach to drama but, rather, consider drama as a lack of comedic techniques. Examples: Ghost World (2001) and Wuthering Heights (2011). According to the Screenwriters' Taxonomy, all film descriptions should contain their type (comedy or drama) combined with one (or more) of the eleven super-genres. This combination does not create a separate genre, but rather, provides
441-412: A timely manner due to prison regulations, so the two men commenced correspondence, and Sweetman furnished Wright with a transcript of his murder trial, from which Wright drew influence. This influence is most clearly seen in the line delivered by Hando when scaring off squatters from the warehouse: "I'll chop your legs off". It is a direct reference to Sweetman's having cut off the legs of his victim. That
490-501: A tunnel at Footscray Station , brutally beating two of them. The gang is led by Hando, a violent, reckless, and unpredictable psychopath with strong white nationalist beliefs and homicidal tendencies, with his friend and second-in-command, the quiet, reserved, but similarly violent Davey. At their local pub, Hando and Davey meet Gabrielle, who suffers from poorly controlled epilepsy, the day after her sexually abusive, affluent father Martin has her junkie boyfriend arrested. Gabrielle begins
539-504: A weeping Davey attempts to comfort a petrified Gabrielle as Hando's corpse gazes lifelessly out at the ocean. Geoffrey Wright 's script was inspired by the highly publicised crimes of leading Melbourne Neo-Nazi Dane Sweetman. Wright contacted Sweetman via mail in 1991 to request an interview; Sweetman was at that time in the process of serving a life sentence in Pentridge Prison for murder. The interview could not be arranged in
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#1732791035977588-538: A wooden table leg at the Feltham Young Offenders' Institution . In 2004, Stewart was found guilty of the racially motivated murder of Mubarek and was jailed for life. Stewart compared himself to Hando in Romper Stomper as well as Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange . An inquiry heard that Stewart had watched Romper Stomper two days before the killing. A member of the inquiry team said he
637-447: Is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction ) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-genre, macro-genre, or micro-genre, such as soap opera , police crime drama , political drama , legal drama , historical drama , domestic drama , teen drama , and comedy-drama (dramedy). These terms tend to indicate
686-526: Is a final fight to the death; the idea of the protagonists facing death is a central expectation in a war drama film. In a war film even though the enemy may out-number, or out-power, the hero, we assume that the enemy can be defeated if only the hero can figure out how. Examples include: Apocalypse Now (1979), Come and See (1985), Braveheart (1995), Life Is Beautiful (1997), Black Book (2006), The Hurt Locker (2008), 1944 (2015), Wildeye (2015), and 1917 (2019). Films in
735-421: Is someone out there for everyone"); the story typically revolves around characters falling into (and out of, and back into) love. Annie Hall (1977), The Notebook (2004), Carol (2015), Her (2013) , and La La Land (2016) are examples of romance dramas. The science fiction drama film is often the story of a protagonist (and their allies) facing something "unknown" that has the potential to change
784-622: Is that in a documentary it uses real people to describe history or current events; in a docudrama it uses professionally trained actors to play the roles in the current event, that is "dramatized" a bit. Examples: Black Mass (2015) and Zodiac (2007). Unlike docudramas, docu-fictional films combine documentary and fiction, where actual footage or real events are intermingled with recreated scenes. Examples: Interior. Leather Bar (2013) and Your Name Here (2015). Many otherwise serious productions have humorous scenes and characters intended to provide comic relief . A comedy drama has humor as
833-763: The western super-genre often take place in the American Southwest or Mexico, with a large number of scenes occurring outdoors so we can soak in scenic landscapes. Visceral expectations for the audience include fistfights, gunplay, and chase scenes. There is also the expectation of spectacular panoramic images of the countryside including sunsets, wide open landscapes, and endless deserts and sky. Examples of western dramas include: True Grit (1969) and its 2010 remake , Mad Max (1979), Unforgiven (1992), No Country for Old Men (2007), Django Unchained (2012), Hell or High Water (2016), and Logan (2017). Some film categories that use
882-493: The Apes (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Blade Runner (1982) and its sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Children of Men (2006), Interstellar (2014), and Arrival (2016). In the sports super-genre, characters will be playing sports. Thematically, the story is often one of "Our Team" versus "Their Team"; their team will always try to win, and our team will show the world that they deserve recognition or redemption;
931-594: The Asian attendant to death; and, after driving all night, they stop at Point Addis , Bells Beach the next morning. There, Gabrielle overhears a conversation wherein Hando tries to convince Davey to abandon her. Feeling betrayed, Gabrielle sets their car on fire and admits to tipping the police off about the gang's whereabouts. Hando, infuriated beyond sense, immediately attacks her and attempts to asphyxiate her multiple times, first by strangling her and then by drowning her in
980-555: The Australian box office, the second highest-grossing Australian film of the year behind Strictly Ballroom . The film has an approval rating of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 29 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.4/10 with its consensus reading: "Relentlessly grim and gripping, Romper Stomper is a disquietingly authentic glimpse into the inner dynamics of a hate group, featuring an electric performance by Russell Crowe". David Stratton of SBS ' The Movie Show felt that
1029-674: The Oi! songs. The film was nominated for nine Australian Film Institute Awards . It won Best Achievement in Sound, Best Actor in a Lead Role and Best Original Music Score . At the APRA Music Awards of 1993 , the soundtrack won Television or Film Score of the Year. Romper Stomper opened at number one at the Australian box office with a gross of $ 819,736 from 49 screens, replacing Strictly Ballroom . It went on to gross $ 3.2 million at
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#17327910359771078-474: The Vietnamese. When the gang agrees to acquire firearms, two female friends of the gang depart in disgust. Gabrielle suggests the gang burgle her father's mansion for the guns. After beating and tying up Martin, the gang ransacks the house, smashes one of his cars, and raids his wine collection. The youngest skinhead, Bubs, steals a deactivated revolver from the house during the burglary. Gabrielle tells Martin
1127-407: The audience jump through a series of mental "hoops"; it is not uncommon for the crime drama to use verbal gymnastics to keep the audience and the protagonist on their toes. Examples of crime dramas include: The Godfather (1972), Chinatown (1974), Goodfellas (1990), The Usual Suspects (1995), The Big Short (2015), and Udta Punjab (2016). According to Eric R. Williams ,
1176-412: The broader sense if their storytelling is achieved by means of actors who represent ( mimesis ) characters . In this broader sense, drama is a mode distinct from novels, short stories , and narrative poetry or songs . In the modern era, before the birth of cinema or television, "drama" within theatre was a type of play that was neither a comedy nor a tragedy . It is this narrower sense that
1225-399: The burglary is revenge for his years of abuse, then reveals to Davey her plan to take Hando away from his violent life. Martin eventually frees himself and uses a handgun to scare away the gang, who flee in the trashed vehicle and leave behind most of the stolen goods. Due to this incident, Davey begins to question his violent lifestyle. Agitated by Gabrielle's criticism of the poor outcome of
1274-533: The characters' inner life and psychological problems. Examples: Requiem for a Dream (2000), Oldboy (2003), Babel (2006), Whiplash (2014), and Anomalisa (2015) Satire can involve humor, but the result is typically sharp social commentary that is anything but funny. Satire often uses irony or exaggeration to expose faults in society or individuals that influence social ideology. Examples: Thank You for Smoking (2005) and Idiocracy (2006). Straight drama applies to those that do not attempt
1323-473: The course of the film. Thematically, horror films often serve as morality tales, with the killer serving up violent penance for the victims' past sins. Metaphorically, these become battles of Good vs. Evil or Purity vs. Sin. Psycho (1960), Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980), The Conjuring (2013), It (2017), mother! (2017), and Hereditary (2018) are examples of horror drama films. Day-in-the-life films takes small events in
1372-422: The ensuing brawl and chase, several skinheads are beaten by the angry mob, among them Magoo, Luke, Champ, and Brett. The rest of the gang are chased back to their rented warehouse, from which they narrowly escape as the Vietnamese mob breaks in and ransacks the building before burning it down . The skinheads soon find a new base at a nearby warehouse, after evicting a pair of squatters, and plan retaliation against
1421-481: The family as a whole reacts to a central challenge. There are four micro-genres for the family drama: Family Bond , Family Feud , Family Loss , and Family Rift . A sub-type of drama films that uses plots that appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodramatic plots often deal with "crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship". Film critics sometimes use
1470-409: The film and television industries, along with film studies , adopted. " Radio drama " has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in a live performance, it has also been used to describe the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio . The Screenwriters Taxonomy contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon a film's atmosphere, character and story, and therefore
1519-546: The film could stir up more violence. Looking back, it was probably pretty foolish of me to think that I could get that message across [by refusing to rate the film]. So Geoffrey [Wright] was upset, but I must say I did get letters at the time, from people in the Vietnamese community, who thanked me for taking that attitude because they felt that the film could stir up racial violence. The film's violent content sparked heavy controversy. In March 2000, British prisoner Robert Stewart bludgeoned his cellmate, Zahid Mubarek , to death with
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1568-486: The film was socially irresponsible, stating that he felt it made neo-Nazism look fun and exciting at a time of heightened racial tensions. He therefore refused to give it a rating at all, while fellow Movie Show critic Margaret Pomeranz gave it four-and-a-half stars. Stratton also described the film in Variety as " A Clockwork Orange without the intellect". Wright was so upset by Stratton's rating that he later poured
1617-610: The film's characters. The film was financed by the Australian Film Commission with Film Victoria . The film's score was released by Picture This Records. It included the orchestral score and four tracks of energetic punk rock music similar to the Oi! genre (recorded by studio musicians). In 2014, bassist Chris Pettifer was interviewed for Vice Magazine about the soundtrack, in which he expressed his disappointment about how genuine neo-Nazi groups had embraced
1666-416: The future of humanity; this unknown may be represented by a villain with incomprehensible powers, a creature we do not understand, or a scientific scenario that threatens to change the world; the science fiction story forces the audience to consider the nature of human beings, the confines of time or space or the concepts of human existence in general. Examples include: Metropolis (1927), Planet of
1715-416: The hallmark of fantasy drama films is "a sense of wonderment, typically played out in a visually intense world inhabited by mythic creatures, magic or superhuman characters. Props and costumes within these films often belie a sense of mythology and folklore – whether ancient, futuristic, or other-worldly. The costumes, as well as the exotic world, reflect the personal, inner struggles that the hero faces in
1764-477: The homepage of his personal website. An Australian video streaming service Stan produced Romper Stomper , a six-part television series, as a sequel to the film. The film's director, Geoffrey Wright, directed two episodes, alongside fellow directors Daina Reid and James Napier Robertson . The actors reprising their original roles are Jacqueline McKenzie , Dan Wyllie and John Brumpton . Drama (film and television) In film and television , drama
1813-408: The labels "drama" and "comedy" are too broad to be considered a genre. Instead, the taxonomy contends that film dramas are a "Type" of film; listing at least ten different sub-types of film and television drama. Docudramas are dramatized adaptations of real-life events. While not always completely accurate, the general facts are more-or-less true. The difference between a docudrama and a documentary
1862-429: The last remaining member of his gang. Arriving at Davey's granny-flat, Hando finds his friend in bed with Gabrielle. Hando accuses her of informing the police, but Davey says they were together the whole time since leaving the squat. However, Hando convinces Davey and Gabrielle to come with him by claiming the police will soon raid the residence, and the trio go on the run. They rob a service station, where Hando strangles
1911-435: The legal system. Films that focus on dramatic events in history. Focuses on doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and ambulance saving victims and the interactions of their daily lives. Focuses on teenage characters, especially where a secondary school setting plays a role. Point Addis Marine National Park The Point Addis Marine National Park is a protected marine national park located near Anglesea on
1960-401: The owner. Upon seeing the new owner and his sons, they inform Hando, who arrives with his gang, and they savagely beat two of the new owner's sons, while the third son escapes and calls for help. Fed up with the gang's antagonism and violence, a large mob of armed and angry Vietnamese men, led by Tiger, arrive and descend upon the skinheads. The Vietnamese outnumber the skinheads by droves, and in
2009-410: The racist patches from his flight jacket out of concern for his grandmother. The morning after, the police raid the warehouse where the skinhead gang is hiding. Bubs is shot in the head after pointing the stolen deactivated gun at the police, and what remains of the gang is beaten and arrested. Hando, who was returning to the warehouse and fled when he spotted the police, successfully evades capture as
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2058-539: The robbery and their living conditions, Hando abruptly hits, berates, dumps, and then evicts her. Davey, unable to tolerate the excess violence and Hando's cruel and unpredictable nature any further, declares his departure from the gang and gives Gabrielle his German grandmother's address, where he will be staying. Gabrielle informs the police of the gang's location and spends the night with Davey, where they confess their feelings for each other. Davey also reveals his doubts about his violent lifestyle to Gabrielle, having removed
2107-534: The story does not always have to involve a team. The story could also be about an individual athlete or the story could focus on an individual playing on a team. Examples of this genre/type include: The Hustler (1961), Hoosiers (1986), Remember the Titans (2000), and Moneyball (2011). War films typically tells the story of a small group of isolated individuals who – one by one – get killed (literally or metaphorically) by an outside force until there
2156-525: The story." Examples of fantasy dramas include The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), and Life of Pi (2012). Horror dramas often involve the central characters isolated from the rest of society. These characters are often teenagers or people in their early twenties (the genre's central audience) and are eventually killed off during
2205-419: The surf. Davey attempts to fight Hando several times and successfully disrupts each attempt on Gabrielle's life, but he is quickly fought off and beaten down each time. Eventually, Hando attempts to smother Gabrielle in the sand, before Davey, desperate to save Gabrielle, stabs Hando in the neck with his Hitler Youth knife. Hando staggers away before finally collapsing. As a busload of Japanese tourists looks on,
2254-578: The term "pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled, camp tale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character) that would directly appeal to feminine audiences". Also called "women's movies", "weepies", tearjerkers, or "chick flicks". If they are targeted to a male audience, then they are called "guy cry" films. Often considered "soap-opera" drama. Focuses on religious characters, mystery play, beliefs, and respect. Character development based on themes involving criminals, law enforcement and
2303-498: The word "comedy" or "drama" are not recognized by the Screenwriters Taxonomy as either a film genre or a film type. For instance, "Melodrama" and "Screwball Comedy" are considered Pathways, while "romantic comedy" and "family drama" are macro-genres. A macro-genre in the Screenwriters Taxonomy. These films tell a story in which many of the central characters are related. The story revolves around how
2352-462: Was a prolific letter writer, and much of his correspondence contained racist and violent content: "He sees himself in the correspondence starring in the film Romper Stomper as a racist thug attacking gooks ", the inquiry was told. The Anti-Nazi League protested against the film's London premiere. Dylann Roof , the perpetrator of the Charleston church shooting , had an image of Hando dying on
2401-527: Was one of many aspects of the film that mirrored Sweetman's life. A further example is that the characters Gabrielle, Davey, and the punk girls were all based on associates of Sweetman. Sweetman's name was conspicuously absent in the end credits, however. This issue was raised in the Australian media during the publicity phase of promoting the film. Russell Crowe acknowledged the origin of his character during an interview on Tonight Live with Steve Vizard in 1992. Wright has also cited Sweetman as an inspiration for
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