I’m not overly familiar with the story of **Mark “Chopper” Read**, but then again I don’t think many people are, most people close to him agree he’s full of shit and the man himself even recounts his memories and experiences are probably over the top, and the movie reminds us that a few times,
Maybe it’s for that reason then I didn’t find myself enjoying **Chopper **as much as I thought I would, don’t get me wrong I agree with the huge amounts of praise for **Eric Bana**, I think he largely carries the bulk of the film on his back by really tapping into the uniqueness and somewhat charm of the infamous **Chopper**, it’s no wonder this role propelled him, and I’m a fan of the overall camera work etc, the way things are framed and shot & the dark/green tint on scenes really help paint the picture that behind the eccentric and explosiveness as well as the brutality of the man, **Chopper** really does struggle with issues that the everyday person does, that ending shot really did put into perspective the myths and ideas surrounding the man,
But it’s part of **Choppers **inability to recount the accurate truth that this movie also doesn’t work for me, the movie says at the start this isn’t a biography and it’s a dramatisation, and of course as with all movies like this there’s going to be exaggerations, but I still want to learn about **Chopper **the man, look at the recent [***Bruce Springsteen ***](https://boxd.it/bxLpLb)******movie, I felt like I learnt a lot about the man despite only knowing a handful of his songs, in a effort to be confusing and mysterious like **Choppers **accounts of his life, the movie feels like it’s put together a bit clunky, it wants to be confusing and mysterious like we are in the mind of **Chopper**, and while the atmosphere and way it’s shot works for that, I still want a put together coherent narrative, it’s easy enough to follow a basic storyline here but I found myself asking “what is going on, did I miss something?” On more than one occasion,
I’d be lying if I said **Chopper **isn’t a fun movie, **Eric Bana** is electric in the lead role and there’s quite a few laughs to be had, it’s just a shame then the movie doesn’t feel coherent or like I’m actually learning anything new about **Mark “Chopper” Read,** of course a part of me thinks the point the movie wanted to make was how full of shit the man allegedly was when recounting his life, but the movie does just feel like it’s messy, loud and nonsensical at points and it gets lost trying to feel a bit to much like the man himself
