Romper Stomper is a controversial, extremely violent portrait of a group of unbridled Neo-nazi skinheads. David Stratton (Variety) spoke of a ‘Clockwork Orange without the intellect’.The film concentrates on a group of Neo-nazis who are regularly at odds and fight with the Vietnamese community in Melbourne – all this fed by fury, hate and a ‘philosophy’ of white supremacy. Gabe, a young girl addicted to drugs who flees her rich father because he has sexually abused her, joins the group and has an affair with the leader of the gang, Hando, a brute with a thin veneer of charm. The gang makes a destructive raid on Gabe’s father’s house. After a while, Gabe’s relationship with Hando has little passion left, so she starts an affair with the quieter and more insecure Davey, Hando’s sidekick and friend. In the end she turns the gang in to the police. When the Vietnamese also start fighting back, the film reaches its climax on a windy beach after which Japanese tourists photograph the landscape maimed by these human shards of social chaos.What makes Romper Stomper objectionable is that the director apparently makes no attempt morally to censure the characters, but only shows them in their unbridled violence and their frustration. Wright himself says of his characters: ‘Skin culture is bold and imposing. Skinheads have strong views and they know what they want, no matter how morally bankrupt they are. (…) In the film I show what they do and say “Now its your turn to make up your minds about this”.’ It was mainly the ‘dramatic potential’ of the skinheads which appealed to the director.’Romper Stomper is an exposé from the inside, examining not only the anti-social drive of the characters, but the cinematic iconography which represents such violent passions.’ (Toronto Film Festival Catalogue)
