The Punisher (2006, DVD)

Ask not, what is death? Rather ask, when is death?


The Punisher is the story of an anti-hero. Actually, it s something of a primer on the concept. In some sense it s a simplistic exposition of the idea, but in a very similar sense The Odyssey is as well. The Punisher is also a movie filled with violence that remains dark, depressing, and without hope all the way to the bitter end. You might not like the movie, but to not like it because it never rises from its despair is like thinking of The Odyssey as flawed because, that guy can t catch a break, can he? Every third release these days is filled with nonsensical explosions, and somehow they get away with it because they make no bones about the fact that they re idiotic films; but let a film be slightly serious and it s sure to be blasted for being littered with senseless violence. We ve been so overexposed to senseless violence, that we ve forgotten that there s any other kind.

The story begins (and the first forty minutes should be made into thirty) with an illegal arms sale which turns out to be a sting. In the aftermath we learn that Frank Castle (Thomas Jane - Dreamcatcher , '61*', Stander ) was the undercover officer working the deal. We also learn that the criminal who was accidentally killed was the son of Howard Saint (John Travolta), a local crime czar. It turns out this bust was Castle s last before retirement, something that comes rather early (apparently) for officers doing the most dangerous work. Saint wants revenge, and sends his goons to off Castle, but Saint s wife insists on killing Castle s entire family as well. You knew it was coming, and you aren t going to be disappointed. Castle s family is mowed down, including his wife and son, who are mowed down in another semi-literal sense. By way of what will be seen as cliched melodrama (and perhaps it is), Castle survives to look up Saint another day. He soon moves into a tenement house that, even if only for its nonsensical location, could only exist in comic-books, which is populated by three misfits who likewise only have existence in the realms of the less or more than real. From here we watch as he hopes to make life difficult for Saint. Yet hope is the wrong word here. He hopes for nothing, and drinks himself silly day and night. Nevertheless, he plots an intricate sort of revenge, though the story asks if there is a difference between punishment and revenge.

The Punisher is easily one of the best adaptations of a comic-book, and simply because it is so true to its source material (as opposed to, for instance, Spider-Man ... a movie that I liked anyway) that it simply writes off the fact that a lot of people are going to dislike it. It could, with very little real effort, have jazzed itself up like so many other recent comic-book stories, but while the others can accommodate such a move to some degree or another, The Punisher would have been lost in the translation. As I said, this is an anti-hero story, and it is extremely committed to retaining that title. The anti-hero story is a story about the furthest extremes of Life sucks! . There is no happy ending by definition, and by virtue of the flaws that make the anti-hero anti .

Of course, being an anti-hero story is no great positive in itself. There are bad anti-hero stories. The question is, does The Punisher do its job well? Sure, it s a comic-book, but is there anything real of the literary device? When a bad guy is stabbed to no effect, and Castle is shortly thereafter stabbed in the same spot and feels a lot of pain, is that just action-movie goofiness that we might see in a plethora of other films? Or, is a standard detail of the anti-hero (to distinguish him from the villain he resembles in many ways) that he is the one able to be hurt ? When Castle pulls the blade off an industrial paper cutter to go outside to kill someone with, despite the fact that his apartment is littered with guns, is that senseless violence? It s certainly comic-booky , but is it purposeless, and without meaning?

It s actually not likely that I ll convince anyone that this is a good movie, and certainly there is no more chance than convincing people that the comic-book the movie came from has real literary value. If you want a good movie that has comic-book characters in it, Spider-Man and the X-Men movies will serve you quite well. If you want a movie that is the comic-book it comes from, The Punisher is the best we have so far. I predict a lot of people are going to talk about The Punisher as looking low-budget , and there s a definite mistake there. Though we might have thrown another $100 million at it just for the sake of throwing $100 million at it, it looks precisely the way it was meant to. If you can t see the frames of the comic come to life in The Punisher , you haven t seen a comic-book.

Still, it is a movie. But, for all the bad press I m sure it will get, I think no one will be able to make a good case that the movie is especially lacking. It s the story they ll be after. I m curious how John Travolta will weather the storm sure to follow, but the truth is (though I m no real fan) he s quite good in here. Partially a result of pretty clever writing, Saint actually manages a certain depth. His reactions may not be realistic (it s a comic-book after all), but they are honest. His relationship with his right-hand man is interesting, broader than absolutely necessary, and moves well beyond the typical henchman we might expect. Travolta puts this all together quite well. His expression, and often slightly delayed reactions mesh perfectly with the project. Will Patton is fiendishly non-committal and aloof in his psychosis as that henchman. Perhaps most interestingly, the movie features an operatic dance of mayhem, singing included, with The Russian , and a honky-tonk ballad execution by Harry Heck and there have never been two more perfectly rendered comic-book episodes.

Thomas Jane (who people refuse to recognize as the Christopher Lambert clone he is) should not be underrated either. Though he might well be described as wooden, there is also such a thing as being wooden on purpose when it is what the role actually calls for. He s not going to smile much in the movie, but he ll occasionally smile without smiling. You can t call it great acting, but it s what we re looking for here.

The Punisher is a movie that s only interested in being taken for what it is. You know that s true, because it refuses so many simple roads to mass appeal. Not this dark. Not this much violence. A happy ending. A hero.