Trailer
Plot summary
Mark 'Chopper' Read wants to be a celebrated crime figure. He is serving a sixteen-and-a-half-year sentence at Pentridge Prison in Victoria after trying to abduct a judge so that Jimmy Loughnan could go free. In the yard, Keithy George shows him the line that marks the Painters and Dockers territory and warns him off it. Read crosses it the next day and stabs Keithy several times, so the Painters and Dockers put a $10,000 contract on him. Read asks Bluey Barnes and Jimmy Loughnan to join a siege against the gang. When he asks the prison board to move him for his own safety, it refuses, and Read has his ears cut off so he can be transferred to a mental health wing.
Cast
- Fred Barkeras Gov. Beasley
- Carl Priceas Brunswick Court Judge
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Chopper (2000)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Read himself, the man Bana plays, suggested Bana for the part after seeing the actor in the sketch comedy series Full Frontal; Bana then spent two days living with Read to practice for the role, and many of Read's friends, enemies and old associates were interviewed.
- The biggest production difficulty was being allowed to use Pentridge Prison in Coburg, Victoria, for the shooting: the prison was being closed down, and while the negotiations were under way the funding for production was delayed.
- Part one of the production ran from 3 May until 26 May, with part two from 28 June until 21 July 2000, and the month-long break enabled Bana to put on the extra weight necessary to play the older Read.
- The film grossed A$300,000 in previews before becoming the number one film in Australia, knocking Mel Gibson's The Patriot from the top spot with a gross of A$1.8 million in its opening week.
