Mad
Dog Morgan (1976)
Beaten, branded, brutalized, but never broken.
Director
Phillipe Mora
Author Margaret Carnegie
Starring Dennis Hopper - Jack Thompson - David Gulpili
Review by Noel Baily
If
you check the credentials of Philippe Mora you will find he
leans towards the Outré School of filmmaking. 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 too 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 centre 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
support work from Gulpilil as always. He also plays the film's
didgeridoo on the soundtrack.
MAD
DOG MORHAN is no thinking-person's classic, it’s 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 isn’t...but
neither does it generate the cringe factor of THE ADVENTURES
OF BARRY MACKENZIE.
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