THE PUNISHER (Mark Goldblatt, 1989)

[Jox]

On French radio (NPR-like) website:
http://www.franceinter.fr/depeche-que-s ... os-devenus

[Jox]

Brazilan poster



Brazilian VHS

[Jox]

"people walking around a massive cut out cinema advert for The Punisher with Dolph Lungren. Bogota Colombia"

(May 1990?)

[Jox]

The Zavvi UK steelbook
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p ... stcount=52

http://s11.postimg.org/mzaqrxmrn/20150228_095323.jpg

http://s11.postimg.org/3mofzemir/20150228_095201.jpg

http://s11.postimg.org/sde4d81vn/20150228_095230.jpg

http://s11.postimg.org/vo2hd3rsz/20150228_095257.jpg

[Jox]

[Jox]

Don't be fooled by the Anchor Bay edition: not only it's the R-rated version but the 2.0 LPCM sound track is actually a MONO mix, from which has been made an awfully spacialized 5.1 "DTS-HD Master Audio" track. In comparison the Dolby Digital 2.0 of the German Koch Media 3-discs edition is pure gold and the original stereo mix ("compressed" or not it sounds infinitely better).

[Jox]

WEEKEND MAYHEM: DOLPH LUNDGREN IN THE PUNISHER
http://www.nerdist.com/2015/03/weekend- ... -punisher/

[Jox]

A good interview with Steven Grant about the genesis of The Punisher mini-series with Mike Zeck that relaunched him as a standalone Marvel character:
http://www.dvdverdict.com/interviews/stevengrant.php

[savagesketch]

Clearly written before production on PUNISHER: WAR ZONE, which finally got the character's his origin correct and made him a military man, rather than a cop or FBI agent. It's a shame WAR ZONE didn't deliver though at the box office. It's the best adaptation of the character, with Dolph's turn at a close second, and the 2004 Thomas Jane version dead last IMO... The 2004 version just seems to get worse with age. It has always amazed me at how that film touted itself as getting the character right and tried to distance itself from Dolph's 1989 version, when it was largely inferior. Sure, Dolph didn't have the skull, but he was more the Punisher than Jane was...

[Jox]

By the way, he was written as a Vietnam vet turned cop in the 1989 version but that doesn't show in the final product (some synopses still reference him as the last survivor of the Skull Company, his Vietnam troup, sort of special forces or something).

And they still got the skull on the daggers and his face make-up but nobody seem to care or notice... (and it's not like the X-MEN looked the same as in the comics either).

The fact most people don't realize is that, right or wrong, they were going for a rather Mad Max kind of look (kind of smart and cool in my opinion). Not only the MAD MAX movies were still the big reference at the time (with RAMBO I guess), but a lot of the Australian crew worked on one or several of the films: production & costume designer Norma Moriceau did MAD MAX 2 and 3, Tim Wellburn edited the final reel of MAD MAX 2, stunt coordinator Chris Anderson worked on MAD MAX 1, co-producer Su Armstrong supervised MAD MAX 3, and of course Mark Golblatt was a big fan of the films...

The fact is that even with Burton's BATMAN they tried to go for a darker look (rather than the Adam West kind of colored costume), the same with how Moebius gave movie He-Man's costume more of an edge I think.

Lucky they didn't have Dolph's Punisher take his shirt off as some producers might have if they did the movie back then!

[savagesketch]

And they still got the skull on the daggers and his face make-up but nobody seem to care or notice... (and it's not like the X-MEN looked the same as in the comics either).

The fact is that even with Burton's BATMAN they tried to go for a darker look (rather than the Adam West kind of colored costume), the same with how Moebius gave movie He-Man's costume more of an edge I think.

Jox, why do you think fans were okay with the lack of faithfulness to the costumes in X-MEN and BATMAN, but maligned PUNISHER? It's always bugged me... In fact, I distinctly remember reading articles during the production phase of 2000's X-MEN, and they clearly stated that the costumes looked too silly and "comic booky"... Is it because X-MEN had a huge budget and was slated to be a huge summer release, so fans were happy with what they could get? Or is it because Punisher is synonymous with his trademark skull? The double standard between these two properties and their film adaptations is aggravating...

On a different note, do you know why for the VHS release shots of Dolph from the deleted scenes of the film were featured prominently on the box art? Doesn't anyone ever check these things? It wasn't until I finally saw those scenes just a few years ago, that that suddenly made sense. Thank God for YouTube!

[Tom]

I've always found this film sorely underrated. It's got a grindhouse element that became iconic, as J says in the Mad Max series. It's funny, but if you make the exact same film 10 years later with Quentin Tarantino directing, and perhaps someone a little more popular in the lead it would be considered a genre classic.

As it is, it's a Lundgren vehicle, which for several unfortunate reasons went straight to video in the States, and came long before the Marvel popularity boom (whilst of course being wholly overshadowed around that time by Batman fever).

What's funny is, now 25 years after it's release, the film is beginning to find more and more of a cult audience. It's finally be re-appraised by a lot of people, and even more so, Dolph's own contribution is more appreciated. Granted some die hard fans of the comics aren't happy, but lets face it, these sorts are never happy. They didn't like what X Men did in some matters, or Spidey, etc. They key difference though is Punisher isn't the saleable commidity that the more fantastical and populist Marvel characters are. Spiderman doesn't have to win over all the comic fans because it will simply appeal to a general mass audience regardless of whether it ticks every box for fans.

Some people say you shouldn't watch Punisher as a Marvel film, but as a conventional action film. That's partly true. Marvel films are in the action genre anyway, but the character himself, throughout his comic book life-cycle was more grounded. People might bemoan the lack of a skull Jacket, but we're talking a simplistic vigilante character. D's punisher did just that, no more, no less. Marvel didn't just do superhero stories.

[Jox]

Right, and the fact it wasn't a big budget ($10 million against 40 for BATMAN) made it an easy target. The French publicist of the film just told me himself they were disappointed the film wasn't more spectacular when they first saw it, and the distributor didn't want to do press screenings before the movie opened (as "damage control").

But there's nothing cheerful about THE PUNISHER and Goldblatt is a genre and exploitaion fan who wanted it to be dark and gritty, oppressive, while notably referencing Fritz Lang (of THE BIG HEAT) and Mario Bava (of DANGER DIABOLIK notably). The climax and melancholic ending are grave and moody like very few action films who have dared.

Also the era was of more patriotic or cheerful action heroes, which the PUNISHER (or RED SCORPION's Nikolai weren't). Although Burton's BATMAN was quite dark for a pop-corn family movie of the time, but it had a studio and "Batmania" (as we it was called then) campaign to support it.

Maybe it would have done better 10 years earlier, in the 70s when the vigilante figure became so emblematic with DIRTY HARRY and DEATH WISH...

On a different note, do you know why for the VHS release shots of Dolph from the deleted scenes of the film were featured prominently on the box art? Doesn't anyone ever check these things? It wasn't until I finally saw those scenes just a few years ago, that that suddenly made sense. Thank God for YouTube!

I don't know, either they thought it doesn't matter, hadn't seen the film (the ones choosing the photos) or picked the stills blindly from their batch. I just noticed there's one of these photos on the UK Blu-ray as well, and they got published back then in a couple of magazines during the French release. They were obviously part of the official stills that were sent out, but like I said above the press and even some of the people involved seem to not have seen the film until very late. Dolph spoke a lot about enjoying playing a regular American cop with a family, when he hadn't seen the final cut and when he did most of his interviews for the film, well before it came out (and aparently he went out on his own to promote the movie, according to the French publicist with whom he dealed with directly which something that never happens: without going through the studio, an agent, not even an assistant).

[Tom]

I really love Dennis Dreiths music. It's got a Brian May (Mad Max 1 and 2...and not of Queen fame) vibe which again was probably intentional and ties nicely into the Ozploitation style.

[Jox]

Oh my god the score is brilliant... I can't describe how my 10 going on 11 year-old self felt when it got out of the teatre on that 26th of October 1989 of fall break...!

From what I heard from Dennis (whom I'm proud to have befriended with and used as the composer of my 2005 short), I don't know if that was all intentional but the vibe got there from both his intentions behind and the references of that era. Goldblatt seems to have left him alone for the most part.