Celluloid Punishment: A Cinematic History of The Punisher

- by Leo Stableford, 3 June 2015

"...I was cast down... to a world of killers. Rapists. Psychos. Perverts. A brand new evil every minute, spewed out as fast as men can think them up. A world where pitching a criminal dwarf off a skyscraper to tell his fellow scum you're back is a sane and rational act." - The Punisher ("Welcome Back, Frank"), written by Garth Ennis.

This is the first article in a series called "Problem Heroes"

Frank Castle, the merciless Punisher, is the poster child for problem heroes. In his very first appearance in February 1974 he attempted to assassinate Spider-Man (Amazing Spider-Man #129) and this was just the tip of an iceberg that would plumb some bizarre and gloomy depths.

The Punisher's creator, Gerry Conway, had a very clear picture of Frank Castle in his mind. The character's black and white costume reflects his morality. For Frank Castle there are no shades of grey.

Conway had such a defined view of what Castle should be that he actually submitted a sketch, including the iconic skull emblem, along with the Spider-Man script. Marvel art director, Jon Romita, Sr., blew the skull design up to cover the whole chest, but didn't give Castle a mask. Conway hadn't put a mask on his sketch assuming the artist would add it as a matter of course, he figured that if anyone needed to hide his face it would be this guy. But the mask never materialised and the Punisher's look stayed as originally depicted by the writer with only a few artistic tweaks.

It is perhaps because of this black-and-white moral viewpoint, coupled with the inspiration for the character being vigilantes as depicted in movies like Walking Tall and Death Wish, that made The Punisher so attractive to Hollywood. If you look at how Hollywood has depicted Castle over the last quarter century you cannot help but see that he is, maybe, the best served of any Marvel property by the film industry.

That doesn't mean that there aren't ups and downs along the way, The Punisher is a problem hero for a reason. Nevertheless, when Castle has made it to the big screen the worst you can say is that they've watered down the character, the mildest of betrayals. The chief problem with this watering down process is that it strips Castle of all the things that make him a compelling character.

In 1989's The Punisher, starring Dolph Lundgren as Castle, the watering down comes in the form of fairly standard action fare, boring villains and no comic book flourish. The movie, in fact, takes the character back towards a homage to the '70s and '80s vigilante flick and leaves Castle the weaker for it.

Lundgren's Punisher.

Not that there is no fun to be had in watching Lundgren fire many guns and cause many explosions. The movie also hits a couple of other important character notes, he has a clownish friend, Shake, played by Barry Otto, a motif that would recur in future adaptations. The other important note that every adaptation appears to hit in some form or other is his pity for the weak and the helpless, here personified in a band of kidnapped school children.

Aside from these two important character notes 1989's effort throws in some turgid gang politics, an underwhelming, not to mention ridiculous, ninja character and an uneasy respect between Castle and the police officer in charge of catching him (played by Louis Gossett, Jr.).

Fast forward to 2004 and Thomas Jane slips into a skull t-shirt to take down John Travolta's Howard Saint in a movie based largely on Garth Ennis's classic "Welcome Back, Frank". There are two main problems with this movie if you're a Punisher fan. The first problem is that Welcome Back, Frank is a work of insane genius, crammed to the gills with inspired gallows humour that cuts very close to the bone. Any movie adaptation that failed to convey the lunatic glee of Ennis's work was going to be a disappointment. This movie delivered that disappointment in spades on that score.

The larger problem was director Jonathon Hensleigh's angle on the character, linking the Punisher's story and character to classic tragedy and opera. The operatic tragedy references do tie the movie together but at the expense of it being much fun. Not only that but the script ties itself in knots to state that Castle's actions are not "revenge" but "punishment". Unfortunately the operatic theme only serves to bring vengeful themes to the fore.

Tom Jane as the 2004 version of Frank Castle.

There are still things to like in the 2004 movie. Thomas Jane looks great as Castle, and there are a few moments where it indulges in some black humour one-liners. The film never appears comfortable with itself, however. On the one hand we're expected to accept a scene in which Castle's entire family (aunts, uncles, second cousins twice removed, literally) are slaughtered by gun men, but then, on the other hand Frank mopes about being miserable and having a cry about things while drinking whisky.

Contrast this with the Frank Castle of Welcome Back, Frank, who appears to be carved out of tombstone granite, and you see the problem. The movie wants its emotional cake and to eat it too.

Watched in isolation it is easy to lose track of the fact that the 2004 movie is the only one that doesn't attempt to show how the police react to Castle's rough, vigilante justice. When you put all three movies together, however, it does appear to be an important omission.

The police sub-plot from Welcome Back, Frank is resurrected in 2008's "Punisher: War Zone", with Ray Stevenson donning a skull-emblazoned heavy flak jacket for the grimmest Punisher outing to date.

The original draft of the script for War Zone, which started life as prospective sequel to the 2004 outing, was penned by Kurt Sutter, whose previous credits include "The Shield" and "Sons of Anarchy".

As might be expected Sutter's script was brutal, possibly too brutal for Jane who left the project stating that he had lost faith in the franchise. Eventually German director Lexi Alexander took over the reins of the project and the script was re-tooled to the point where Sutter eventually had his name removed from the project.

War Zone does reflect this troubled production process. It is one of the first movies ever produced that have the Marvel Studios credit front and center, but coming out in the same year as Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk it has since become a bit of a red-headed step-child of that movie production juggernaut.

As with Iron Man and Incredible Hulk, it seems that War Zone was a tentative step into the world of movie production where they thought they might "try something out". What they tried out was that uber-violent comic-book adaptation with no holds barred that some voices on the internet had been crying out for for so long.

Stevenson makes an entrance.

It turned out (as Dredd was to discover later) that just because a vocal minority say they want something doesn't make it so. War Zone only took $10 million on a $35 million budget. It was critically panned and the audiences stayed away in droves.

This is a great pity for Punisher fans because, like all the other Marvel Studios projects since 2008, this was a pretty decent attempt at putting Frank Castle on screen. In fact, watching War Zone in the context of all the other Marvel fare on offer currently brings out the tingles of guilty pleasure.

Don't get me wrong the movie is gruesome, cruel, in poor taste and bloody, but that is where the fun is to be found. The cast is great. Ray Stevenson is as stony faced as you would like him to be. Dominic West shares scenery chewing duties with Doug Hutchison, as Jigsaw and Loony Bin Jim, respectively. Colin Salmon and Dash Mihok both do stellar work, unfortunately their scripts appear to be from different movies, but you can't have everything.

At the time the people made their voices heard loud and clear that what they wanted was a wise-ass Tony Stark, the world of the "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist". Castle slunk back into the sewers to wait for his next opportunity to deliver his own brand of rough justice.

Who knows if the stars will align in time but Marvel have full control over the rights to the Punisher now, Daredevil on Netflix has been a wild success, the Civil War is coming. The idea of squandering the Punisher as a back up character in the days to come would almost seem criminal. Castle definitely appears to fit into the world inhabited by the Kingpin and Daredevil, so I guess we can live in hope, or fear, that one day soon we might have the chance to say: Welcome Back, Frank.


What do you think about The Punisher as a movie character? Which big screen Punisher was your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

Tagged: movies & TV.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Loading

---

Follow @TrashMutant