The Punisher (1989 film)

The Punisher is a 1989 American vigilante film action film thriller film directed by Mark Goldblatt and was based on the Marvel Comics’ character of same name. It stars Dolph Lundgren, Louis Gossett, Jr., Jeroen Krabbé , Kim Miyori, Bryan Marshall, Todd Boyce, Brian Rooney, Nancy Everhard and was distributed by New World International.

Former undercover police detective Frank Castle (Lundgren), presumed dead after his family’s murder, becomes the elusive vigilante “The Punisher,” targeting mobsters with his skull-etched throwing knives. As the mob groups weaken under his relentless attacks, the yakuza, led by Lady Tanaka (Miyori), seize the opportunity to invade their territories, threatening the Mafia by kidnapping their children. Punisher retaliates, freeing most captives, except the son of mobster Gianni Franco (Krabbé), and gets arrested. Freed by Franco, Punisher aids him in rescuing Franco’s son from the yakuza.

The film had a troubled release as New World Pictures had financial issues. While it received a theatrical run internationally, it was released on Home Video in the United States, grossing $30 million. The film has since gained a cult following.

Plot

Frank Castle is a former undercover police detective whose wife Julie and two daughters were killed 5 years prior to the events of the film in a Mafia car bomb intended for Frank, who most presumed to be dead.

Castle has since become the city’s infamous vigilante – known only as “The Punisher”. He now lives in the city’s labyrinthine sewer-system, having assassinated 125 mobsters (not counting henchmen) in the past 5 years. His work is known by the use of special throwing-knives engraved with a skull. Castle’s sole ally in his one-man war against organized crime is Shake (taken from Shakespeare and “the shakes”), a stage-performer-turned derelict who typically speaks in rhyme.

The underworld families have become so weakened by the Punisher’s guerrilla warfare that kingpin Gianni Franco is forced out of retirement. It is also revealed that he had ordered the car bomb that killed Castle’s family.

Franco plans to unify the decimated families. However, this attracts unwanted attention from the Yakuza, Asia’s most powerful crime syndicate. Led by Lady Tanaka, the Yakuza decide to take over the Mafia families and all of their interests. In order to sway the mobsters to their cause, they kidnap their children and hold them for ransom.

Shake pleads with the Punisher to save the children, who are likely to be sold into the Arab slave trade regardless of whether the Mafia give into the demands. The Punisher attacks Yakuza businesses, warning that every day the children are gone will cost them money. The Yakuza later capture the Punisher and Shake and attempt to torture them into submission, but the Punisher breaks free and decides the only course of action is a direct rescue.

He is able to save most of the children and commandeers a bus to get the kidnapped children to safety.

Tommy Franco, the son of Gianni Franco, had been taken away to Yakuza headquarters prior to the rescue.

The Police intercept the bus and arrest Frank after he releases the children.

While in custody, Castle is reunited with one of his old partners, who warns his multiple killings will likely get him executed to which Frank is ambivalent to stating that he, Frank, is already dead. He is now just The Punisher.

Soon afterward, Franco breaks Frank out of custody to aid him in saving his son from the Yakuza as well as destroying Lady Tanaka’s plans. He expresses regret that the bomb killed Castle’s family, but Frank insists that when they are done with the Yakuza, Franco will die.

Franco and the Punisher raid the Yakuza headquarters, eventually killing Lady Tanaka. Upon being reunited with his son, Franco betrays the Punisher, but the Punisher defends himself and kills Franco.

Franco’s son Tommy then threatens the Punisher for killing his father but cannot bring himself to take revenge. Castle warns Gianni Franco’s son, Tommy, to “grow up to be a good man”, not following his father’s misdeeds.

The police arrive, only to find no trace of The Punisher. Meanwhile, at his lair, Castle maintains that he’ll be waiting “in the shadows”.

Cast

Production

Christopher Lambert was the original choice for the role of Frank Castle, although an ankle injury forced him to withdraw. Steven Seagal was interested in playing the role. Despite longstanding rumors, Michael Paré was not the original choice for Frank Castle, and Paré has consistently said he was never even approached for the role.

Nicole Kidman was initially cast in a main role. In 1989, Dolph Lundgren revealed that he was trying something different and that he liked the Punisher character.

Production took place in Sydney.

Music

A full orchestral score was composed and conducted by Dennis Dreith at the Warner Bros. soundstage in Burbank, California. A CD of the soundtrack was not released until July 19, 2004 (Perseverance Records, PRD006). The CD includes the complete multi-track stereo recording, and a 22-minute interview with the composer Dennis Dreith and the director Mark Goldblatt. Perseverance Records released a new 5.1 mix as a Super Audio CD, in collaboration with Tarantula Records. The American DVD release only contains a monaural soundtrack, though the film has Dolby Stereo. The 2013 German and UK Blu-ray/DVD editions were presented with 2.0 and 5.1 (Dolby Digital and DTS-HD MA) soundtracks. The UK disc was made from mono tracks.

Release

Theatrical

The film was given a worldwide theatrical release, except in the United States, Sweden, and South Africa. It was originally slated for a US release in August 1989, and trailers were created by New World. It premiered in Germany and France in October 1989 and was shown months later at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Sci-fi Convention in July 1990. However, the film never received a wide theatrical release in the United States due to New World’s financial difficulties and its new owners not having an interest in theatrical distribution.

Home media

It was sold to Live Entertainment (now Lionsgate) which released it direct-to-video on VHS and Laserdisc in April 1991. It finally premiered at the 2008 Escapism Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina where director Mark Goldblatt screened his own personal 35mm print. He showed that again in April 2009 at the Dolph Lundgren Film Fest hosted by the New Beverly theater.

In 2013, Koch Media released a hard cover media book, a BluRay and a DVD set that contains the theatrical cut, uncut version and the extended workprint of the film.

The set also includes audio commentary by Director Mark Goldblatt and a behind the scenes booklet.

During the commentary Goldblatt expresses regret at the removal of the Punisher’s iconic skull logo.

Reception

Financial

Overall, the film earned $30 million, on a budget of $9 million.

Critical response, cult following and re-evaluation

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 25% of 16 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.5/10. The website’s consensus reads: “Despite the seemingly indestructible Dolph Lundgren with a crossbow, The Punisher is a boring one-man battle with never-ending action scenes.” Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating “generally favorable” reviews.

Tom Jolliffe of Flickering Myth explained that “in the years since release, The Punisher has increased its cult following. It was initially very popular on video, as most Lundgren releases were. Whilst critics and non-genre fans dismissed it as trash initially, it has often been re-appraised in the last decade particularly. It has now found more appreciation for its finer points. Whilst some of the source changes (Castle dwelling in a sewer) and lack of skull may have irked some, as a late 80’s action piece, it’s solid. Add to that fine performances from the two villains of the piece, Kim Miyori and Jeroen Krabbe, and a committed performance from Louis Gossett Jr as Frank Castle’s ex-partner. The supporting elements were all in place to prop up Lundgren, considered at the time as more athlete than actor. The end result is that, even if it doesn’t always feel like the Marvel view of Castle, Lundgren’s version of a ghostly, haunted shell of the man he was, is effective.”

Christopher Null gave the film 1 out of 5, stating the film was “marred by cheeseball sets and special effects, lame fight sequences, and some of the worst acting ever to disgrace the screen”.

Kim Newman of Empire, gave three out of five stars in 2000. He felt it was harder than the recent film outputs by Marvel. While he felt that the movie lacked subtlety and could not turn Lundgren into a real actor, he found it highly entertaining and praised the strong female villains who give the hero a hard time. His final thoughts were “at times a subversive, sub-Marvel thrill, it might be best to come back to this after the glut of goody-goody heroes due to bombard our screens have passed.

MTV.com cited it as an example of a failed comic book film, complaining that the film omitted aspects of the character that made him compelling, and would have served better following closer to the plot of the source material.

Criticizing the film’s storyline and acting, Time Out magazine concluded the film was “destructive, reprehensible, and marvelous fun”.

TV Guide’s movie guide gave the film three out of four stars, praising Lundgren’s performance and compared the characterization of the Punisher to that of Frank Miller’s re-imagining of Batman in The Dark Knight Returns. They further praised the film’s atmosphere, calling it “genuinely comic book-like, rather than cartoonish”.

Comic writer Garth Ennis, who wrote The Punisher 2004 series, cited by many as the best Punisher comics, called it the most honest adaptation of the character on a podcast in 2022 praising its “no compromise” portrayal of the character.

Legacy

In 1990, New World promoted The Punisher II and an X-Men animated film, but the projects never materialized.

The advertisement of the 1990 tie-in video game The Punisher features images from the film. Similarities between the film and the 1993 video game The Punisher include the assault on a casino by breaking through the ceiling and the female assassin.

In June 1990, a 64-page comic adaption of the film, written by Carl Potts and drawn by Brent Anderson, was released by Marvel.

In 2004 a reboot starring Thomas Jane, titled The Punisher was released by Lions Gate Films and Columbia TriStar Pictures.

In 2008 another reboot was made starring Ray Stevenson and titled Punisher: War Zone. Released by Lions Gate Films and Sony Pictures.

In 2019, Lundgren reprised the role in a photo shoot.

References

External links

The Punisher at IMDb