Snowtown is set in urban Adelaide in the late 1990s and tells the story of Jamie, his brothers, their mother and a man with whom she becomes romantically involved - John. The setting is one of depression, borderline poverty and assumed joblessness in a society with little hope. John takes on the role of a father figure in this fractured family, his easy-going nature and resourcefulness helps provide a stability and calm to their hitherto chaotic lives. The trouble is that John has a different side to his nature, one that slowly emerges when talking with neighbours and despite its unsavoury nature seems to flourish.
John holds a set of extreme views on how society should react to paedophiles. His views (that they should be killed, tortured, castrated etc...) find a friendly audience in the Adelaide neighbourhood; people are eager to listen to what he has to say and happy too to go along with him, fantasising about what they would do to a 'paedo' in their midst. The trouble with John though, is that he's actually prepared to act upon his big talk, and attack people he thinks are paedophiles, gay, funny-talking, different or simply don't agree with him. From tipping a pile of severed animal heads on to someone's porch to kidnapping, torture and murder, John seems to have no compunction in going after people he sees as different to his vision of societal norm. All the while John is slowly dragging his new family with him - after all, he is the father figure they have never had.
Rated 18 for its violence, Snowtown is a terrifying portrayal of how groupthink can result in the normalisation of extreme opinions and behaviours, the logical extension of which would be people acting out on those opinions. There are several scenes in which people in the community sit around with drinks talking about the various kinds of tortures they would inflict on a variety of deviants if they could get their hands on them. Though that might be only talk, it's the kind of talk that goes on in pubs and clubs all over the nation all the time. The film asks questions about how easily conversation can become violence when society is in disarray, and how when extreme views go unchallenged they can quickly become the norm.
It's a chilling portrayal of a society breaking down and people looking for an enemy within to blame. It's also massively depressing and not for anyone who doesn't want to watch intense scenes in which people are slowly choked to death. In conclusion, it's an interesting subject matter and very gritty but seems to be going out of its way to make everything as grim as possible and so will put a lot of people off. Not a film for everyone, though its message is one we should all listen to.
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