Was this film pro or anti neo nazi? - Romper Stomper (1992) Discussion

[–] user-16648 17 years ago

This film and another one -- PARIAH both took objective viewpoints. Although PARIAH leans toward showing it as negative. The BELIEVER is more definitely in the direction of negative whereas AMERICAN HISTORY X -- is the most conflicted. It shows it being negative, but then has the character who changes for the better killed by blacks and completely undoes it's message.....

for what it's worth -- recommend this one, PARIAH and even the BELIEVER. All three show the subject powerfully....

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[–] my_dad_hussles_mooses 17 years ago

Well if bullying thugs randomly attacking those weaker than them simply for being of a different race as well as being total hypocrites. (Labelling the hippies "degenerates") can be seen as positive then it may, in some far out way be a positive look at nazism.

As I Hustle In The City, For A Paper Stack, Lord Knows I Got The Devil On My Back

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[–] howcanyoubesure 17 years ago

Exactly if in your mind you see them as positively portrayed the problem is in your mind not on the film.

And harrykew01, I know it's been ages since you asked me that direct question and I realize now i never answered to it.
I think they are atacking the asians not because they are bad but just because thgey are foreigner anyway. And the point is that in a society gone wrong everyone is to blame, no one gets well in the picture, and that's what feeds the stupid bonehead motivation.

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[–] howcanyoubesure 17 years ago

Exactly if in your mind you see them as positively portrayed the problem is in your mind not on the film.

And harrykew01, I know it's been ages since you asked me that direct question and I realize now i never answered to it.
I think they are atacking the asians not because they are bad but just because thgey are foreigner anyway. And the point is that in a society gone wrong everyone is to blame, no one gets well in the picture, and that's what feeds the stupid bonehead motivation.

I don't know if that answers it but what do you mean with "the newcomers were strange and bad, too. " ? They look strange ? Ist hat a problem to you ? Why do you think they are bad ?

Again, a society that's makes everyone look bad, feeds the neo nazi thing, but maybe that kind of light on things is already a symptom that you're beiing mislead .

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[–] harrykew01 17 years ago

I have said that this movie is not a GLORIFICATION of neo-Nazism, not pro-Nazism. It is just a JUSTIFICATION for it. ("I know they are bad. But I understand they exist because this and that.... " *beep*

And H'besure question: "what do you mean with "the newcomers were strange and bad, too. " ? They look strange ? Is that a problem to you ? Why do you think they are bad ?" ???? I don't think the Vietnamese would be happy to have been portrayed as bunches of little gangs in the movie, instead of as ordinary workers, students, business people doing every day's life work. I know this is a movie. The story requires that. It's no problems. But that does show them as just ethnic gang, doing nothing except playing billiard and getting involved in brawls, doesn't that?

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[–] peatek1999 17 years ago

Honestly, if you need to ask you are either baiting people or not "real" bright.

Do you think showing violence perpetrated by hate is neutral? Ambivalent? Detached? You don't think Hando's ultimate demise was karmic payback for evil? Or even self-fulfilled?

I swear brains are thick these days.

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[–] lifelike001 17 years ago

could anyone (with two braincells to rub together) seriously suggest there was a shred of redemption in hando and his lot?? they were *beep* filth to the core.

i think the fact that everyone was dead at the end speaks volumes to whether the film was anti or pro skin *LOL*

mind you that does happen in every geoffrey wright film....

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[–] illogyst 17 years ago

whatever this film means to be,
it is used as a pro-facist statement
in underground neo-nazi germany.

although i like the movie a lot,
i don't like this fact ... :-(

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[–] lifelike001 17 years ago

yep... tragic little suburban wanna-skins watch it even now as some sort of celebration, completely missing the point of the film which is *beep* up behaviour tends to *beep* you up *LMAO*

its like watching girl, interrupted and thinking WHOA i wanna be just like them!!

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[–] illogyst 17 years ago

precisely

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[–] elitist 17 years ago

Definitely anti, but trying to understand how they happen.

But I can see how a dopey Nazi (now there's a tautology) would look at Romper Stomper and draw these lessons:

* You've got to keep your women in line - if it wasn't for Gabe they'd have got lots of money and valuables from her scumbag father's house. Typical weak woman, not killing him when she had the chance. And Davo wouldn't have ended up killing Hando.

* The Asians are taking over while whites fight among themsleves, as shown by the final scene.

He'd also relish the cool, scary lines he could never come up with himself like 'We came to wreck everything, and ruin your life. God sent us.'

I remember on the SBS-TV Movie Show back in 1992, Margaret Pomeranz gave it 4 stars, while David Stratton gave it zero.

UPDATE: just saw the 'Ending was bad..what u think??' thread. 'renatocorral' says: 'bros before hoes. The ending would of been so much better if he choose hando over that b!t(h.' I was right!

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[–] lifelike001 17 years ago

i dont think there was any real discussion of 'how they got that way' - because there is no excuse for people like that existing. there was no examination of these people before they were skins.

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[–] gonzoforsherriff 17 years ago

There is no in depth examination into any of the characters, with the minor exception of Davy, and even then the only thing that you are shown is the fact that he clearly has no mum to speak of and his dad due to his job has never really been there that much for him. Regardless of this minor point, the fact is that at the end of the day that to waste your life on something as absurd as hating others simply due to race is complete rubbish! But hey..live and let live I suppose. No way under heaven to change the view of these mongrels so why try?

"Buy the ticket, take the ride!" - Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

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[–] xX_Cloud_Xx 17 years ago

so are there any pro nazi films out there i can watch??

i was kind of disappointed by the film, there was barely any racism or violence in it. i watched this when i was like 9.

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[–] gonzoforsherriff 17 years ago

Well there's not too many people who are willing to put forth the money needed to make a pro nazi movie, being that there is no reason to, being that nazis are cretinous mutations of life who should've been drowned at birth like the social rejects they are.

Regardless of my views toward that lot, this film, like many other films of it's kind use facism as a background to a more in depth story that has meaning. Being that racism is a futile pursuit with absolutely no reasonable backing for it's logic, it fails to impress people for say an hour and half needed to make a film. It's only tolerable in small doses, otherwise it becomes just sad and boring, much like the stupid mongrels who follow such ideology.

"Buy the ticket, take the ride!" - Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

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[–] lifelike001 16 years ago

i think the message is really this is a story of some people who just so happen to have these specific ideas and beliefs. its not about those beliefs, hence it offers no explanation or justification of them. its part of the quality of the film - the characters would never have asked those questions of themselves, so you dont get those answers.

ive met these people and they dont wake up in the morning and think logically about why they do what they do. theyre retards by nature, thought and action, blundering through life never awake to action and consequence, exercising their inadequacy and maladjustment on any scapegoat they can find. just as displayed in the film.

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[–] Ferago 16 years ago

I didn't find the film pro, or anti skinhead. The story would have worked with any type of gang, it didn't really matter that the characters were skinheads.

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[–] chelle-35 16 years ago

Why does it need to be spun one way or the other for people to feel comfortable. It isn't a church sermon, it's just a movie... and without a spin it basically shows what happens in real life or at least back then. Reality is uncomfortable for some, I suppose, but I don't think that should entail everything ever filmed to have some moral attached to it.. make your own decision from what you see and apply it to your life and let that be an adequate return on your investment of time in watching a movie...

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[–] tomba-netropolis 16 years ago

If you can't see that this film is anti-nazi then I don't know what is wrong with you.

But it doesn't write that message on your nose, you have got to think for yourselves.
Believing for a second that it's a pro-nazi film is pure idiocy.

Most of all the film is about seriously *beeped* up people in Melbourne.
A very dark and well made film indeed. Russel Crowe is ferocious.

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[–] TMundo 15 years ago

anti

The first 30 minutes or so of this film pretty much shows the lifestyle of as group of skinheads. They don't work, they don't really live in homes, they sort of camp out in old factories and warehouses. They have wild parties where they sleep and fornicate on the floor. Hard to say what their source of income is, robbery I suppose. Never the less, Russel Crow's character refers to the orientals as boatloads of human trash, and yet his lifestyle in contrast with their's pretty much contradicts this statement. The orientals live with their families, they work (the factory,) they even buy property and attempt to move up the economic ladder (the bar.)

And so you've got a bunch of vagrants, so to speak, that don't work or contribute to society in any positive manner. That binge drink and sleep wherever, calling a bunch of hard working families human trash simply because they are immigrants. The anti-racism message is one of hippocracy, who's the trash now?

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[–] poli373 12 years ago

Can we really afford to depict racism in anything other than a negative light?

I don't know, the definition of racism is extremely vague

I believe all races are equal or have equal potential, however I hold the belief that certain cultures are superior to others.

Flame away at will.

Maybe I'm a culturalist

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[–] yentelsobkowiak 11 years ago

A real skin *beep* politcs , i think the film makes skins look like there all nazi's , still a good movie , but they took over the skin style , wich looks acurate in the movie except for the swastika's and other *beep* nazi symbols , most ppl that shall see a skin would think theyr racist but the skinhead thing started with the jamaican immigration so i dont get the racist skin thing!

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] 11 years ago

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