Thursday, October 04, 2012

Movie review - "Mad Dog Morgan" (1976) **1/2

Dennis Hopper is excellent value as the famous bushranger, best known for being considered one of the really bad bushrangers (popping up in Robbery Under Arms and so on) - but his treatment here is quite sympathetic: in the first 15 minutes Morgan witnesses the massacre of some Chinese, takes to petty crime, is given a very harsh sentence, is raped and tortured in prison. So you hardly blame him for turning bushranger.

Having a nutty central figure does serve to distance Morgan slightly from the viewer (from me, at any rate) - he kind of goes loopy communing with the aboriginals in the bush. His sidekick is David Gulpillil who has probably too many scenes of chanting and being mystical, but then that was the 70s for you. But it's an interesting, exciting movie full of bold images and interesting set pieces, such as the massacre and Frank Thring's evil policeman. There is some decent action and period detail, and an excellent support casting including Jack Thompson, John Hargreaves and Bill Hunter.

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