ROMPER STOMPER

Special to PollyStaffle.com

It’s kind of inevitable that I would do this review at some point. The joke is two fold. This is an Australian film about those big tough Nazi skinheads overseas. Acquiring firearms is a plot device in it. Joke one - I have four guns in my living room. Ah yes, Nazi skinheads. We don’t have that many in the United States, the last one I met made off with $7,000 from a friend of mine as a result of a con involving establishing a medical marijuana dispensary. I myself am known to be insanely right wing on many issues, but I have no capacity to retain a commitment to racial hatred or not believing strongly in many things like the Nazi Skinheads do, such as the Holocaust never happened. 12 million people didn’t die? That’d be one fuck of a cover up.

Perhaps suffice to say, Nazi skinheads are some strange folks, but I haven’t seen much of anything come out of it other then a few excellent bands. Speaking of excellent bands, even the skinheads that are not Nazis get pretty fucking weird. There’s a good TV documentary on the Oi band Combat 84 on YouTube. They weren’t a Nazi band to my knowledge but that gets into glue-sniffing and other wacky skinhead fun.

Romper Stomper (1992) is okay. The film has a very melodramatic and sentimental side to it, which irks me a little bit. This one skinhead Davy learns that it’s better to love then hate at the end. That’s pretty cheesy if you ask me. By 1992 the Nazi skinhead thing had been going for about ten years, so there was nothing radically new about them when they did this film. I think in 1992 you could still sort of get away with being an oi punk band, sort of the way you could sort of get away with being a gothic/industrial band until about 1995 and still be good. The oi songs on the Romper Soundtrack where written for the film and performed by study musicians, but nonetheless, they feel authentic, and I’d say it’s a great soundtrack.

The skinheads face off against a Vietnamese gang and get their asses handed to them. A couple of them get killed in the fight. They have some rich girl tagging along with them; there’s a whole bit about her being epileptic and another bit where she gets her revenge on her incestuous dad by helping them break into his place. He eventually chases them off with a pistol. They have a falling out with the rich girl; this one Davy skinhead that’s in love with her leaves after Russell Crowe playing the leader slaps the shit out of her. She rats on the skinheads and this one really young skinhead gets shot in the process. The rich girl has sex with Davy; he learns that it is better to love then to hate. Russell Crow shows back up; final fight scene; Davy kills Russell Crowe; credits.

Can’t entirely blame Russell Crowe for slapping the shit out of the rich girl; she has a lot of problems and is kind of annoying. Hey, she hangs out with Nazi skinheads, what does she expect?

It is better to love then to hate? Depends really. Terribly hackneyed material for a film though. Romper Stomper might be a classic soundtrack. I don’t know if it’s a classic film.

All right, truly important matters. The scene where the rich girls incestuous father chases the Skinheads off - the gun he uses is a 1911 .45. I’m fairly certain that it is the Rock Island Armory 1911, which would make sense, the Philippines being near Australia. In that case, I own that gun. If anyone knows the answer for sure, write in. Great gun.

- William Wheaton, June 2010

William Wheaton can be reached via email at WorldofWheaton@PollyStaffle.com

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