THE PUNISHER (Mark Goldblatt, 1989)

[Jox]

New killcount

[Jox]

BE KIND REWIND THEATER – Lundgren’s ‘Punisher’ Better Than You’d Think
http://fanfest.com/2017/07/08/be-kind-r ... oud-think/

Burton’s Batman had a $125 million budget

Nope it was $40 million, blockbuster budgets weren't that high back then...

Astoundingly, the 1989 Dolph Lundgren movie stands way above what Jonathan Hensleigh and Lexi Alexander both attempted to wow audiences with last decade and I don’t mean by a few feet in one-legged running contest. No, I mean by miles. Sure, the stereotypes are comically bad, the forced accents too. The stand-in spots for New York are painful at times to compare to the real deal. But to be Marvel’s very first live action movie, Mark Goldblatt’s film holds its ground well. Yeah, the dialogue is cheesy at times, and Frank living in a sewer and communing naked with God is a bit strange, but Dolph Lundgren and the unrelenting action buoy the worst parts of The Punisher. The authenticity of the brawls, with the appearance that the punches and kicks are actually making an impact, adds to the slam-bang fireworks of the action sequences. Factor in Mark Goldblatt’s wild style, zooming in on knives and arrows being thrust in-air with a comic-booky flair, and you’ve got a more entertaining movie than you’d expect from a flick never released theatrically in the United States

(Well, that’s because New World Entertainment started to go under but…hey…no fault of Marvel!)

That's a bit more complicated than that as you'll read in the book...

[Jox]

Australian Blu-ray review
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/item/puni ... e-1989-brd

[Jox]

"Spider-Man was a lot about Jewish guilt whereas The Punisher is a lot about Catholic guilt"
- Marvel Editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco, interviewed by yours truly

(advance advert announcing the production in Variety, September 1988)

[Jox]

Polish VHS cover made with artwork from an advance pre-sales foldout presentation from before Dolph was attached.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWp4Z4PBA6B/

[Jox]

https://iscfc.net/2016/04/03/the-punisher-1989/

Got it spot on:

Check out the below screenshot and compare the shape of his stubble to the shape of the famous skull – perhaps it was too subtle for the comics fans.

Maybe they were expecting to lose the rights and wanted to make sure they could retrofit it to “Generic Revenge Guy” without too many problems?

No, the producing studio owned Marvel which they had acquired in 1986, no rights problems, Marvel was glad there was a movie made about one of their characters, there were lack of insignia was a decision from producer Robert M. Kamen and Mark Goldblatt (Kamen had the ultimate say though)... Much more info and never-published info about the matter in the book...

[Leigh2704]

I'm guessing the stubble skull went unnoticed for years, as it wasn't particularly well defined through VHS definition. In hi Def, it's undoubtable.

[Jox]

Good point!

[Jox]

I do remember "The Punisher" done by Dolph in 1989... oh man, 1989! -- to this day, by far the best version of the concept. The 2004 version with Thomas Jane was a much tamer proposal, and the 2008 version with Ray Stevenson (a very interesting actor in his own right) was pure pulp:

- SILENT TRIGGER writer Sergio Altieri (1952 - 2017) in an email to yours truly, February 2017

[Jox]

Sound design / foley:

Screen Shot 2017-08-17 at 17.51.48.png (33.85 KiB) Viewed 19854 times

(from sound supervising editor David Lewis Yewdall's book Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound)

[Jox]

punisher_book
30 years ago, Boaz Yakin delivered the 3rd draft of his #script dated August 1987...!

[Jox]

ThePunisher '89 Book‏ @punisher_book
In late 1989, #Marvel still believed in a US #theatrical #release by inserting an advert in their new mag MARVEL 1989 THE YEAR IN REVIEW

https://twitter.com/punisher_book/statu ... 4296098816

[Jox]

http://www.cbr.com/the-punisher-best-an ... -costumes/

Dolph’s lifeless costume makes him indistinguishable from any other violent anti-hero from 1980s cinema.

Really?! Which does he look like?!

borrows far too heavily from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s look in The Terminator

How does he look like the Terminator I'm not sure: no shiny leather jacket, no sunglasses or spiky hair are in sight as far as I know

we can collectively pretend that this movie had nothing to do with the comic book character.

Not even worth commenting just like the rest of the paragraph on the movie ...

[Jox]

New World Pictures cut a showreel for the ShoWest convention where Dolph promoted the film in February 1989 (while DARK ANGEL / I COME IN PEACE was starting filming)

[Jox]