THE PUNISHER (Mark Goldblatt, 1989)

[ShawnWatson]

So how long is the DC? Is it a noticeable upgrade from the version I've known since I was 10?

[Jox]

By that I guess you mean the UK VHS (which the BBFC cut even more than the theatrical release)?

Then the DC is about 80 seconds longer (approx 89 min 25 secs), but compared to the R-rated cut it's only about 10 seconds difference (but the impact and violence of the concerned shots is quite noticeable and edited better obviously).

[Jox]

A positive vintage review from the French Première magazine

[Jox]

Survey: What would be the best title for the English edition?

• "The Punisher Untold Story"
• "The Punisher: The Secret History"
• "The Untold Story of the Original Punisher"
• "The Punisher Wild, Untold, Definitive Story"
• "The Punisher: Blood, Bullets and a Missing Skull"
• "Punishing the Guilty: The Making of the Original Punisher"
• "The Punisher: The Definitive Making of an 80's Cult Classic"
• "I Must Punish You: The Making of Dolph Lundgren's Punisher"
• "Skull, Knives and Machine Guns: the Making of The Punisher"
• "The Punisher: Dolph Lundgren, Marvel & New World Pictures"
• "Judge, Jury, and Executioner: The Untold Story of the Original Punisher Film"
• Suggest your own title...

13914138_10154431201618781_7272831237906722463_o.jpg (79.71 KiB) Viewed 19996 times

[lt.brannigan]

I like the simple and straightforward

"The Punisher: The Definitive Making of an 80's Cult Classic"

[Krom]

I suggest You to choose whatever title but with "The Punisher" in front.

[Jox]

Thanks, it can still change and not be my call ultimately (depending on how things go) but for a sales pitch those will do...

[Jox]

The belt and holster worn by Dolph, who signed them for Kenji Midori, world champion of Kyokushinkai Karate in 1991, now the president of the WKO Shinkyokushinkai federation (who I think auctioned it in the late 1990's early 2000's...)

[bomaz]

I'm a little late, but I vote the first two propostion : simple, straight and sober.

[Jox]

Thanks! (It's never too late!)
It's for a pitch proposal for now, if a publisher picks it up, they might change the title anyway if they see fit (and the book is not picked up I'll release it myself through a self-publishing company)...



A rare promo shot, sold on ebay about 12 years ago (and yours truly was outbid)
www.instagram.com/punisher_book

[Jox]

When the PUNISHER: WAR ZONE director Lexi Alexander is asked about her thought's on Dolph's PUNISHER:

Lexi Alexander ‎‏@Lexialex

Working with Dolph is seriously on my bucket list. Chemical engineer, multilingual, serious badass martial artist, hot...

https://twitter.com/Lexialex/status/870832033622142976

[Scifibuff5]

• "The Punisher: Blood, Bullets and a Missing Skull"

I don't know if you picked the final title but I dig this one.

That's groovy that Lexi, director of WAR ZONE, wants to work with them as well. I think they'd get along quite well by far.

[Jox]

ThePunisher '89 Book‏ @punisher_book

The more THE #PUNISHER '89 gets trashed and the more it appears as an "#arthouse B movie #gem" by today's standards...

Seriously, when I read stuff like that...

Howard the Duck was the first Marvel property in movie theaters since the Captain America serials in 1944. Sure it flopped, and yes the following Marvel movies (Dolph Lundgren’s The Punisher, Roger Corman’s unreleased Fantastic Four, Cannon Group’s direct-to-home video Captain America) were even worse, but whatever.

THE PUNISHER may be flawed and whatnot but it's serious in its tone and sensibility, taste and melancholy, and not like anything else of that era, it's not cheesy and it's almost ahead of its time, doing what big movies such as THE DARK KNIGHT did 20 years later...

That said, with Mark Goldblatt and Boaz Yakin's influences such as Mario Bava, Fritz Lang, Dario Argento, Kazuo Koike (LONE WOLF AND CUB) and Frank Miller, the film was made with 70's exploitation cinemas from both Europe and Asia (and even Australia) in mind rather than an all American taste. So it makes it kind of overlooked and misunderstood in some way.

[Moltisanti]

It just makes for a cozy narrative to lump all those early Marvel movies together into one lousy lump. The fact that it has amassed a healthy cult following will always be lost on many.

[Jox]

The fact that it has amassed a healthy cult following will always be lost on many.

Absolutely, I also think many people who put it down gratuitously haven't seen it recently or maybe haven't really seen it at all and just rely on its reputation...

I also noticed there's almost not a day when somebody doesn't post a pic of the movie VHS, DVD or Blu-ray on Instagram.