Over the last two weeks, Chris from Terry Malloy’s Pigeon Coop and Mark from three rows back have been running an impressive Blogathon focused around debut films. Debut films have a special appeal, demonstrating a fresh, often rough-edged take on cinema, and much of the focus of the Debuts Blogathon has considered not just the debut films themselves, but has also placed them in the wider context of the filmmaker’s subsequent works.
There have been some excellent write-ups thus far – highlights for me include Alex Withrow’s take on David Gordon Green’s George Washington, Armando’s thoughts on David Lynch’s iconic Eraserhead and Tyson Carter’s analysis of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. I was honoured to have the opportunity to take part in this Blogathon, and my article focused on one of my favourite Australian films – Chopper, directed by Andrew Dominik and starring Eric Bana. I look at what makes the film such a successful debut – Dominik’s innovative, confident filmmaking and Bana’s compelling performance, primarily – and considers how its influence is evident in Dominik’s later films (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Killing Them Softly).
If you haven’t already, go check it out at Terry Malloy’s Pigeon Coop.
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