Razorback
by Russell Mulcahy
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Arkie Whiteley, Bill Kerr, Chris Haywood, David Argue, Gregory HarrisonDirector: Russell Mulcahy
Cinematographer: Dean Semler
Editor: William M. Anderson
Producer: Hal McElroy
Producer: Tim Sanders
Writer: Everett De Roche
Writer: Peter Brennan
DVD: Region Code 4
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: PAL
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Umbrella Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Razorback
Movie Review: From Tusk 'til Dawn
Summary: 5 Stars
'Razorback', apart from 'Return of Captain Invincible' and maybe 'Performance', is likely the cultest film ever made.
Its credentials are crackling; mad, bad killer pig, desert lunatics, animal rights protesters, camels, abattoirs, negligible special effects, arty direction, and a delicious ideal of senseless cruelty and insensitivity.
''Jaws' in the outback' just about sums it up, but with notable additions. It has two of the bestest, grotesque villains ever portrayed on film.
Benny and Dicko work at the extremely unpleasant Petpak Cannery, a big, clanking, kangaroo slaughterhouse, around which, much of 'Razorback's action occurs. They enjoy their work WAY too much, live in a cave underneath the plant and insist on 'mystery bags' for their nutritional essentials.
Into their environment bristles Carl Winters in a borrowed old banger, looking for his missing eco-journalist wife Beth. Benny and Dicko know what happened to her but tell him porkies. He goes 'roo hunting with the rinds and is so enamoured with the proceedings, he vomits on their heads! Yet again; every-one's a critic.
After a WILD trippy walkabout, he begins to realise the ghastly truth - there's a giant pig making salami out of the locals. From there on it's a battle between the (happily vicious!) titular giant gammon and the small band of good apples, loins girded and resolute;
Carl, Jake Cullen, a local ham-hammerer who's grandson was smoked by the beast, and research scientist Sarah - (played by lovely, died-MUCH-too-soon Arkie Whitely)- each with a very different point to prove.
Intellectually (mercifully) 'Razorback' doesn't exist. Director Russell Mulcahy hogs the kudos for this. He deserves a medallion for relegating the ecology to a side issue, preferring to concentrate on cruel humour and breathtaking colourful cinematography. It's the correct combination. He's transformed an undistinguished script into a stylishly relentless thriller, proving you CAN make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
Acting is exceptional, particularly David Argue as streaky Dicko. A squeal-voiced swine who gets off on his white, brothel-creeping trotters whenever there's trouble, and snorty Bill Kerr in the Cullen/Quint role, consumed with vengeance and obsessed with making the ultimate McRib.
You won't be boar-ed for a second with 'Razorback'. It's catalogue of hilarious atrocity will have you gasping one minute and chuckling the next. It's a blaise mixture of blood and gleeful vindictiveness. (apart from an attack on Beth Winters just before she's killed, Benny and Dicko have no motive for their mischief. They simply delight in it. The running over of the injured Cullen's dog as she runs for help is particularly galling!)
'Gamulla' where the whole offal-sodden mess is set, is apparently aborigine for 'guts'. The locals know instinctively it's no truffle. I'm surprised 'Razorback' wasn't chopped by the censors.
I've no doubt the rasher among Amazon reviewers will have herd about 'Razorback' and given it a roasting but the proof of this spicy black pudding is in the long-term savouring. I was suspicious of films like this at one time, but I'm cured now.
It yells 'cult' from the rooftops. It's flash, loud, has great in-jokes and is reassuringly despondent about the state of the world.
And if any-ones thinking of turning vegetarian it's a useful safe-guard;
When you're next driving past your local chipolata production unit, and you smell the fear and hear the screams of the terrified innocents awaiting their inevitable appointment with frenzied painful oblivion - think of 'Razorback' and I guarantee you won't feel so sympathetic.
Eat them before they eat you.
You have been reading;
The Cheapest Review Ever To Appear on Amazon.
Proudly posted 23 August 2008 (For posterity)
Thank You.
Summary of Razorback
Australia released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Cast/Crew Interview(s), Collectors Edition, Deleted Scenes, Documentary, Featurette, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: Before he directed the cult classic Highlander (1986), music video creator Russell Mulcahy adapted this stylish, tongue-in-cheek horror film from the novel by Peter Brennan. Gregory Harrison stars as Carl Winters, a grief-stricken American husband who has come to a remote corner of Australia to seek answers in the death of his wife, a TV journalist who was investigating a story on kangaroo poaching. Carl meets Jake Cullen (Bill Kerr), a man obsessed with hunting down what he says is an enormous razorback boar that consumed his grandson. Although he was acquitted, most of the locals believe that Jake murdered the boy himself and invented the crazy story about a giant pig. Jake tells Carl that he believes the razorback is also responsible for his wife's death. At first skeptical, Carl becomes a believer when he encounters the beast. He and Jake track it to a dog food processing plant, where the owners are illegally butchering kangaroos for industrial use. The factory operators are also feeding the dog food to the gigantic razorback, increasing its size and carnivorous appetite. Joined by farmer Sarah Cameron (Arkie Whiteley), Carl and Jake set out to kill the powerful mutant.SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Australian Film Institute, ...Razorback
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