Mad Dog Morgan

Unusual biopic of notorious Australian bush-ranger Daniel "Mad Dog" Morgan (played with animation by crazy-eyed Hopper), of Irish extraction who after witnessing a bloody massacre at a gold diggers site, flees into the Victorian countryside where he attempts a robbery, is captured, incarcerated and makes a lifelong enemy of sadistic trooper Bill Hunter. Following an early release for good behaviour, he's soon mistaken for a thief, shot at and left for dead. Aboriginal tracker (Gulpilil) finds, mends and befriends the affable if at times hot-headed Irishman and the pair go on to become the quintessential criminal duo, pillaging the countryside where Morgan becomes a champion for the battler, the bane of the establishment's fragile class structure.

Meandering tale is full of memorable scenes, picturesque landscape and quirky dialogue, but never quite gels the components homogeneously. The cast is superb with Hopper's erratic and at times dramatic characterisation nicely balanced by Gulpilil as his smiling, more at ease companion, Jack Thompson as a very serious-looking trooper, and Frank Thring as a brutal superintendent with a macabre legacy in mind. Graeme Blundell has a frivolous cameo as an Italian settler, while Liza-Lee Atkinson is sure to float your boat as a horny bar-maid starstruck by Morgan's wild-boy reputation.

Violent and sadistic (e.g. Morgan's sodomy in gaol), there's a Sam Peckinpah quality to the bloody executions, where the blood pumps and spurts out of gaping wounds like sauce from a squeezy bottle. Gory elements aside, there's also plenty of humour, particularly Morgan's delight when he hears of his 'up the establishment' reputation from people he encounters while on the lam. It's a bit amateurish in parts, though it's difficult not to like and the ending's implied gruesome epitaph is both shocking and memorable.

If looking on the DVD cover that is provided by Troma (yes, that old chestnut) - and by this I mean the *new* sort-of remastered uncut DVD version released last year, not the much lamented previous version that looks like hell- you would think that you have been missing out on something really special for your whole cinematic life. How has one not seen a mid 70's Aussie-Western (also one of the very first Australian film distributed in the US) which stars Dennis Hopper as a mad bandit going around the Queensland colonies in the 19th century donning a fake beard and shooting (mostly) those who he deems deserve a killing? It could go either way: it could either be the case where it is a suppressed classic just waiting to be unearthed, or it's a piece of Aussie trash given some prestige above its other Ausploitation films due to its star. Ultimately, the movie is somewhere in the middle, though it tries to be a classic when it can, and sometimes can't help but be kind of trashy due to its budget.

It's protagonist is something of an icon in Australia, like their Billy the Kid (sadly I'd yet to hear of him until this film), who started out as just an Irish farmer who enjoyed his opium, but ran away from a massacre of the Chinese in the area. He then got put in jail for one hold-up, got tortured and raped in prison, and then got out to try and become normal again, only to get shot and get healed by an aborigine. If this sounds like something interesting so far, it is. But the only downside it's at this point that the film finally takes off, after the first half hour; it's not that the opening half hour is bad in the slightest, since the cinematography by Mike Molloy is always something cool to look at in widescreen anamorphic. But the pace is kind of jerky and shaky, going from one set-up to another with a jarring feeling. This happens at other points in the film as well, but not as much as at this part.

And yet, as just noted, when Morgan is shot and heals up with the aborigine (a very natural David Gulpilil), he then decides to fight back. In a way he becomes an outlaw since he's left with no alternative, but at the same time goes for it for all it's worth. He especially attacks the upper class, those who have lots of money and land, and he becomes the big target for the police and authorities in the area, garnering a 1,000 dollar reward. It's here we get to see the big bad Dennis Hopper becomes as Morgan, and the film takes on a quality that is kind of special: it's a western, but it's also an anti-western. It's not about how Morgan is just some amoral villain going around to rob and maim and kill. His terms of being criminal are partly for survival (not too oddly enough one of his old prison "buddies" goes after him now as a member of the local authority), and partly to stick it to 'the man' circa 1860 Australia. We see the people who should be taking Morgan out as being, appropriately for the time period, not very sharp: one of their goals once they get kill Morgan is to study his skull to see how primitive he is.

It's this, actually, that Philippe Mora latches on to. How primitive a life does Morgan lead as an outlaw? His main compadre is an aborigine, who is barely looked on as human by the people in charge in the Aussie area, and as he keeps going along he's more at peace in an odd way with his fate. He knows how lucky he is to get *this* far, and he becomes more of a bad-ass because of it. He's a solid anti-hero, and Hopper makes the movie as awesome as it can get. He has a look about him- yes, even with that fake beard like something out of Cannibal the Musical- that is a little frightening, but also kind of sympathetic and sad. There's a scene where his Morgan is in a house with a woman, and she basically offers herself to him sexually, and he just softly speaks about how he just can't do it, and speaks about his mother. It's a very odd but touching scene, mostly due to Hopper's dedication to the role. By the end he becomes a kind of tragic figure.

He's not just the only reason to see the movie; when it's at its best, Mora's direction is sharp and exciting, particularly with action scenes as you really don't know who will get it and how bad in rifle and bullet fire, the blood being a big factor as well. And the cinematography, even in a print that is still shoddy in this updated Troma release, is striking and ethereal, giving the movie a whole other quality than I expected. Is it a great movie? Surely not. The pacing is not always tight, and some of the supporting performances are weak, as they tend to be in low-budget B-movies. But for what they had to work with, star included, it's definitely worth checking out.

If you check the credentials of Philippe Mora you will find he leans towards the outre school of film-making. In terms of cinematic crap he has managed to helm three of the all time greatest duds: THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE, SWAMP THING and the never to be forgotten, HOWLING 2 (The jury is still out on HOWLING III: THE MARSUPIALS...its either WORSE than 2 or a camp classic)

Whatever, MAD DOG MORGAN (MAD DOG in the US) offers too much to either ignore per se or to slate unmercifully. As a towering portrait of a reasonably obscure bushranger, it is just to disjointed and lacking in sane continuity to be considered a winner. Dennis Hopper's work and intense interpretation of Morgan however is just plain awesome - I consider it amongst his career highlights - up there with BLUE VELVET (are these two characters cosmically related somehow?)

The cinematography is sumptuous although on some dvd's I've noticed a strange discoloration towards the center of the screen throughout the print...oddly though it adds rather than detracts. The music is at times jarring and fully inappropriate, then before you can say "Is this one odd flick or not?" you're watching Hopper perched alone in a bar room, musing on his past and telling his would-be seductress - "I only ever knew one woman - my mother...I'm sorry." That scene alone makes the film worth watching. One of those scenes stays with you if you have any compassion whatsoever.

Frank Thring still thinks he's playing Herod from KING OF KINGS as the head of Victorian Police. His psychotic demands at the end of the film sicken even his subordinates. Clearly he is closer to an institution even than Morgan!

Excellent supporting work from Gulpilil as always. He also plays the film's didgeridoo on the soundtrack.

MAD DOG MORHAN is no thinking-person's classic, its not even an especially good film. What it DOES achieve though, is a fairly accurate representation of Australian Bush life from a bygone period. Within its budgetary limitations, insane direction and superior acting, it is a mini-beacon of sorts from the mid seventies. PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK it ain't...but neither does it generate the cringe factor of THE ADVENTURES OF BARRY MACKENZIE.

The 4.8 IMDb rating is woefully inadequate and quite absurd. This is a 5.6 (min) to 6.5 (max) if you consider the film rationally by virtue of the sum of its parts.

Firstly, my DVD version is the final disc (of 12) in the Australian Cinema Collection and is in good, clear 'tall' widescreen. Therefore I do not need to cover ground about the quality issues surrounding the transfer that other Amazon reviewers have, apart from that it's fine.

Irish Daniel Morgan (a suitably way-out casting choice and performance from American acting legend Dennis Hopper) goes a bit awry and is subsequently incarcerated into a penal regime that demands 12 years hard labour from him. Here, he is raped, tortured and generally abused by officers and inmates who find pleasure in such things.

Calling himself 'Smith', he is freed on parole after serving half his sentence, but Morgan is emotionally damaged and wild with anger and revenge. The film, directed by Philippe Mora, is certificate "M", for 'Mature', as it's an Australian release, is probably between a 15 and 18, over here in the U.K. Thus, it shows the natural side to bush life, as Morgan starts out a free man as a horse thief. Therefore, if such things as aboriginal methods of pulling off a snake's head to extract a 'medicine' are going to spoil your viewing pleasure, then do, look elsewhere, such as the first disc in the boxed -set, the cert U 'Picnic at Hanging Rock'.

When Morgan is left for dead after a skirmish with those he was trying to steal from, the aboriginal youth mentioned above nurses him back to health and teaches him methods of survival. This is at times illuminating but also clumsy - such as Hopper's bushy, shiny false beards that can be spotted a mile off and gun wounds to a head that's obviously made of something very synthetic.

These anomalies aside, this is a pretty good yarn, with Hopper well able to carry the central character. The locational scenery is often splendid and the supporting cast well able, too. Excesses in violence do occasionally mar, as they do look gratuitous, but not, say in the almost stately manner that Sam Peckinpah managed and seem almost jokey.

All in all, this is a pretty good film and actually one of the best in my boxed set, which was slightly surprising.

Australia, in the 1850s. An Irish man Daniel Morgan starts off as gold-seeking immigrant who turns to robbery and gets sentenced to 12 years prison time. This is where the going gets truly tough and scars his mind. After a couple years he gets released. After befriending an aboriginal named Billy, he becomes a bushranger with an ever-growing bounty looming over his head. The two go out of their way to seek those prominent figures for turning him into what he is and for pushing him to the brink of self-destruction. On his trail is the determined Detective Mainwaring, which puts even more pressure on the cracking mind of Daniel "Mad Dog" Morgan.

I heard of the film before, but never had the chance to see it until just recently when I managed to pick myself up a copy of the film. Those who believe this to be a sorely forgotten Australian gem, do make a valid point and I'll be jumping onto the bandwagon too. Cult Aussie director Philippe Mora makes his directorial debut with an interestingly odd, exploratory and rampant curio piece of an Australian bushranger folk legend. It doesn't feel like your basic outlaw movie, as hounding the picture is a socially minded lashing of corrupt power taking away the respectability of a lone and misunderstood figure (Daniel Morgan). We watch the spiralling depiction of a fazed man fighting a society who thinks they are better accustomed and more civilized than him because of his actions against them (but that's far from the case). I didn't think it was going to be as harrowing and potently involving as it was, but this is very much largely thanks to spellbinding method actor Dennis Hopper's (who fell out favour with Hollywood at the time) multi-layered performance as Mad Dog Morgan. His erratic changes in mood (from being placidly polite to passionately quick tempered) are very successfully timed and indeed convincing. One of his best.

Leading the way is a strong Australian support cast with their characters getting enough time to shine. David Gulpilil is a good choice as Billy and has a budding rapport that works along with Hopper's character. Frank Thring stands out as the aggressively bull-headed Superintendent Cobham and a poignantly stern Jack Thompson makes the most of his small role as Detective Mainwaring. Also lurking on screen with tip-top (and some quirky) performances are John Hargreaves, Wallace Eaton, Bill Hunter (who chews up the scenery) and Bruce Spence ticks in with a blink and you'll miss it spot. These are very human characters and cast do a fine job in bringing that to the screen. Mora has crafted a roughly violent tale that skews between cheekiness and a spiritual foray in a well up drawn period. The story jauntily breezes by to begin with then falls into some patchy holes when it can drag, but never gets dull or loses its bitingly ironic edge. It seems to be more complex in its character's reactions than the basic narrative lets on. Mora smoothly plays along with his stylish filming techniques and has a gifted eye for short spurts of flair and (at time surreal) images. No more than some of the well mounted photography by Mike Molloy focuses on the vastly stunning backdrop of the untamed Australian wilderness and accompanying the action is an diversely roaring music score that fits right in with the style Mora's going for.

"Mad Dog Morgan" is an overlooked Australian rarity of the 70s, which is hard not to be highly fascinated by its boldly rough and evocatively baseless treatment of the stirring material.