Customer Reviews

Razorback [VHS]

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Razorback (Russell Mulcahy, 1984)

I actually rented this looking to see if it contained a long sample from a song of the same name by the band Terror Organ. (It does.) I was expecting it to be another godawful piece of made-for-TV Aussie cinema that ignores Australian film history since, and perhaps before, On the Beach; what I got was a pleasant surprise, to say the least. This was Mulcahy’s first big-screen feature, but film fans will recognize the name as the guy who directed Highlander, Ricochet, and (ironically) the recent TV adaptation of On the Beach; Razorback contains a number of the elements that have made his films above average ever since.

As it is with, seemingly, all Australian films of the past forty years, the first thing most people are going to notice about Razorback is the stunning cinematography, which was obvious even on a well-used videocassette. Whatever they’re doing down under in the growing of their cinematographers, they’re doing it right. The second thing is Mulcahy’s use of light and darkness, comparable to that of David Lynch or David Fincher; the man knows what he’s doing when his characters are holding flashlights.

The story itself is somewhat amusing; an old, isolationist farmer, Jake Cullen (Bill Kerr of “Garry Halliday” fame), has his house attacked and his grandson carried off by a giant, insane razorback hog. He attempts to convince the people who live in his small outback town of the danger they’re in, but no one believes him, including an animal activist from America, Beth Winters (Judy Morris). When Winters goes missing, her husband Carl (the ubiquitous Gregory Harrison, who has been in every TV miniseries made in the past ten years) heads to Australia to look for her.

It’s a simple little film that rises above obscurity thanks to its blistering pace, great camera work, and a solid cast. It’s not going to make you think all that much, but it never wants to; it just wants to entertain. ** ½

FROM THE OPENING SCENE WHERE A WIND PUMP IS BLOWING INFRONT OF A BEAUTIFUL AUSTRALIAN SUNSET TO THE COLD DARK FINALE, THIS FILM IS A LOT MORE INTELLIGENT THAN I FEEL IT HAS BEEN GIVEN CREDIT FOR! YES A WILD PIG IS TO THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK, WHAT JAWS WAS TO THE ATLANTIC OCEAN, BUT IN MY EYES IT IS EQUAL IN EVERY WAY TO THE LATTER. THE ACTING IS NOT OVERDONE WHICH ADDS REALISM, AND THE ATMOSPHERE CREATED BY THE CAMERA, SOUND EFFECTS AND ICEHOUSES' IVA DAVIES' EERIE MUSIC MAKES THIS FILM TOTALLY GRIPPING. AUSTRALIANS REALLY ARE GROSSLY UNDERATED AS FILM MAKERS.

I first saw this when I was a kid and it blew my minde. I loved it then and still do. Good movie.

I think this movie was like grizzly the giant pig was really cool and I think that the pig should have fought some monsters like a sasquatch or a yeti. that would have been really cool.

This is a classic Australian film and a great value DVD package as its full of extras including a 70 minute 2005 filmed documentary called Jaws on Trotters about the making of the film. It contains interviews with the producer, director, special effects guy (who made the pig), various actors and information on the few who aren't interviewed (unfortunately Arkie Whitely who played the hot research scientist passed away from cancer a few years earlier). What I liked about this documentary was that they were prepared to criticise their own movie and its bellow anticipated success in the marketplace.

There's also the deleted grisly expanded killing scenes which were left out of the film when it first screened back in the 80's. They are sensational. As well, the original trailer is here along with quite a few other trailers of Australian movies of the same era which may be of huge benefit to those not in Australia who may not have otherwise heard of them.

The basic plot of this movie is a giant razorback destroys a farmhouse taking a small boy away in its jaws. His grandfather is charged with his murder but let off due to lack of evidence. No one in the small rural outback town believes the pig exists except a beautiful research scientist who is studying the boars so both of these individuals pretty much live lives of isolation while trying to track down the beast. When an unpopular American journalist goes missing after her rape by Petfood factory workers that she is investigating is interrupted by a large beast her husband arrives from the US to find out what happened to her. He must survive the terror of the rapist brothers who don't want the truth of what they did to come out as well as the hairy bacon one in order to find out what did happen and avenge his wife.

A razorback is an especially nasty species of wild pig and this movie is about an unusually large (rhino size ) example of the bred which is running rampant in the Australian outback with predictably bloody results .
It opens with a scene of grizzled outback veteran Jake Cullen -well palyed by Bill Kerr--minding his infant grandchild on his remote homestead when the unseen beast attacks and wounds him ,carrying the child away .He is arrested and put on trial for murder but exonerated and set free.From then on he devotes himself to tracking down the murderous beast .

Then an American journalist (Judy Morris) is despatched to the outback to do a story on the wholesale slaughter of kangaroos in the region ;she falls victim to the razorback .Her husband (Gregory Harrison) rejects the officoial version of her death -namely that she fell down a mine shaft .He joins forces with Cullen and together thay set out to track down the beast

The creature is seen only fleetingly but is quite impressive in the glimpses we do get .The script is pretty routine and the plot a tad over-familiar .It is however well photographed (by Dean Semler)wand makes good use of the outback location especially in a series of striking haze filtered back lit shots .It has style and atmosphere galore and looks good -but like director Russell Mulcahy's better known Highlander - its parts are better than the whole .Individually some scenes are striking but there is no real sense of a developed coherent forward moving narrative
By no means a bad movie it would have benefitted from a tighter script and a more foreceful lead actor than Harrison who is a bit bland .One for the creature feature devotees on the board

Its time for this movie to be put on DVD. Its certainly better than alot of crap horror films I see somehow making their way to digital. As other reviews have noted, the cimenatograghy and atmosphere of this film is 1st rate. And the actors took their roles quite seriously (love the 'roo hunt.) I suppose it dident have a huge audience due to its campy premise, yes a giant killer hog. But for a film about a giant killer hog- it excels. Others have asked for it so I'm adding my 2 cents, DVD THIS FILM!

Razorback is a highly underrated and well made horror tale of a monsterous razorback hog terrorizing the Australian Outback. I have viewed this film several times, and it never gets tiresome for good fun! Unfortunately, this film is not distributed on DVD, much to my displeasure! Perhaps one day they will give this film its due rights and release it in digital format. For fans of horror film, I give Razorback 4 stars and highly recommend it!

'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.

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The Cheapest Review Ever To Appear on Amazon.
Proudly posted 23 August 2008 (For posterity)
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Razorback was a great movie for it's time. It doesn't have a 100 million dollar hollywood budget, and you have to make acceptions for the fact it was made in the 80's. But other than that, it is a great film with a great writer! My favorite line? "Wakey, wakey hands off snakey!"