The Punisher Review
by Andy Keast (arthistoryguy AT aol DOT com)April 23rd, 2004
The Punisher (2004): *1/2 out of ****
Directed by Jonathan Hensleigh. Screenplay by Hensleigh and Michael France. Starring Thomas Jane, John Travolta, Will Patton, Laura Harring, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, and Eddie Jemison.
by Andy Keast
"The Punisher" feels like a leftover from the days of Cannon Films, the studio that produced some of the worst action pictures the human race has ever seen, including but not limited to "American Ninja," "Firewalker" and "Over the Top."
If you've seen any of these, this film will play like a torturous homage. There is, however, some fun to be had in the badness.
I try to avoid shifting into the mode of Comic Book Nerd to review a comic book
movie, but I'm afraid I must this time around. I remember reading "The Punisher" as a kid and thinking of it as a violent social commentary about law enforcement, the death penalty, vigilantism and domestic terror in the United States (a lot of the editions I read were written by a Vietnam vet, Chuck Dixon). The comic was also a fascist fantasy, like "Dirty Harry" or "Taxi Driver." It dealt with a lot of icky stuff that a lot of comics didn't touch, and you could get a demented kick out of it once you got past the fact that the
character of Frank Castle is crazy. That may sound silly, but if people still enjoy "Robocop," why not? In the back of my mind I've always maintained that the ideal way to make "The Punisher" into a real movie would be to travel back to the 1970's, when anti-heroes were taken seriously by directors like William Friedkin, Sam Peckinpah and Don Siegel, and when terrorism and the drug trade were arguably stronger.
The mythology is a classic revenge staple: a man loses his family to a gangster
death squad, is pushed over the edge spiritually, emotionally, and declares war
on the mob. John Travolta plays Howard Saint, an exceptionally generic villian
who is so plainly written he could've been played by anyone. Thomas Jane plays
the title role convincingly in that it could have been two hours of an actor brooding in a one-note role. He's not a violent man but an innocent who's been
driven to violence. Still, it's pretty straightforward. There are other characters -henchmen, neighbors, wives- which are mostly distractions or there to raise the body count. This is screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh's first time directing a movie, and while some action sequences are decent, there are times when Castle seems to be so indestructible you almost want to see him face off with the Terminator: he's knifed, shot, bombed and thrown through not one but several walls.
Jane succeeds at humanizing Castle, though the film has bizarre moments involving other tenants in his building. They're a little warm and fuzzy and out of place for such a dark and violent story. Some scenes are unintentionally hilarious, such as those where Saint murders his wife (Laura Harring) and best friend (Will Patton), as the result of strange convolutions in the plot. They're obviously meant to be harsh and shocking, but the directing and acting play them almost as morbid comedy. Of course, when you've
hired John Travolta to be in your movie, where else is there to go but over the
top (ho ho) and light years beyond that.
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