Standard Spoiler – This discusses details of the movie The Rover. If you don’t want to know what happens then stop here
Last week I posted on Facebook that “The rover is the Australian version of The road and makes the Mad Max movies seem quaint by comparison“. The more I think about it, the more apt the comparison is.
The movie is set in the near future after what is described as “an economic collapse”. Most people will immediately equate this with the Mad Max movies but really this comparison isn’t too accurate. The Mad Max franchise is set after a nuclear war and a total collapse of civilization. The Rover is set after what might be termed a great depression. Although things are bad, they haven’t totally collapsed.
But don’t kid yourself, things are terrible. The film was shot to make the barren outback terrain look even more bleak and desolate and to give the viewer a feel for a world that has taken a serious wrong turn.
Eric, the main character, has just pulled into what passes as a bar in the middle of nowhere and is having a drink. He says nothing to anyone in the bar and drinks quietly. He seems quite detached and apart from everyone around him. All of a sudden, three men in a truck crash nearby. Eric takes no notice.
The 3 men pile out of the truck. They appear to be thieves or robbers. They break into Eric’s car and take off with it. Eric rushes out to see his car drive off and gets into the smashed truck. Somehow he starts it and takes off after the men. He catches up to the robbers and confronts them, demanding his car back. The robbers beat him savagely and leave.
When he comes to, Eric continues his pursuit.
Meanwhile at the scene of the robbery a young man is shown getting up. He is the 4th robber that was left behind. He has been shot but is still alive. He appropriates a police truck and takes off.
Eric comes across a roadside market and asks if anyone saw the robbers. No one has. He asks if anyone has a gun for sale. A midget does and offers him a pistol for a large sum of money that Eric doesn’t have so Eric casually murders the midget and takes the gun.
At this time the 4th robber, Rey, shows up barely alive. Eric takes him to a doctor in the outback and gets him patched up. The doctor is really a veterinarian. She keeps dogs in her surgery and Eric is oddly fascinated by this. Some of the midget’s friends arrive and are looking for revenge. Eric kills all 3 of them and he and Rey continue on looking for the robbers.
They stop for the night in a small town. Rey sees a soldier on the street and hides in a hotel room. He hears a knock on the door and shoots his gun. He finds he has accidentally killed a little girl. The shots draw the real soldier and a firefight ensues. Eric hears the gunfire. He casually strolls up behind the soldier and murders him.
Eric has no empathy at all for anyone. All he is focused on is getting his car back.
Rey on the other hand has softened and has come to accept Eric as his leader. He tells Eric where to go and together they set out to find the robber’s hideout. They spend the night in an abandoned factory where Eric is found by soldiers and arrested for the murders he has committed.
Rey could easily leave him behind but decides to rescue Eric. At the soldier’s camp Eric admits to other murders that he has committed and that he doesn’t care if he lives or dies only that he find his car. Rey bursts in and kills the soldiers and saves Eric.
Finally they find the robber’s hide out. Eric surprises 2 of the robbers while Rey holds his brother at bay. The two brothers pull guns on each other and argue. Finally Rey’s brother shoots him. Eric kills the two men he had captured and proceeds to kill Rey’s brother.
In an act of remorse he takes all the bodies and douses them in gasoline and burns them as a sort of funeral pyre.
Eric drives off in his car. He goes out into the deep desert and opens the trunk of the car. Inside is the reason why he was so obsessed with the car. Inside is a blanket with a body. A dog. He takes out a shovel and buries it.
I found the film’s stark and brutal exterior shots fit perfectly with the grim and gritty reality of a world that was meaner and more vicious than the one we live in. The movie violence is understated and nowhere near as spectacular as the Mad Max movies but somehow that makes the scenes seem that much more intense.
Eric is this brutalized and disconnected character that doesn’t care about anything at all except burying his only friend and he is determined to do that no matter what happens.
I found that this stark reality and determination made this film much more powerful than any of the dystopian movies I have previously seen. Not a happy movie but something I would recommend seeing.
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