The Punisher: Theatrical Cut (2004)

Director: Jonathan Hensleigh

Cast: Thomas Jane, John Travolta, Rebecca Romijn, Ben Foster, John Pinette, Will Patton

Country: United States

Rating: R

Run Time: 123 minutes

The Punisher is one of my favorite action-oriented characters in all of Marvel Comics. After his family was gunned down by the mob, Frank Castle donned a skull on his chest and set out to fight crime as The Punisher. He's essentially Paul Kersey from Death Wish but less of an every man, a whole lot more insane, and more of a muscle head. There have been three feature film adaptations of the character so far and each features a different actor as the lead Frank Castle.

Of the three, my personal favorite has always been the 2004 version directed and written by Jonathan Hensleigh (screenwriter of Die Hard With a Vengeance). Hensleigh's The Punisher is very different from both the '89 The Punisher and the '08 Punisher: War Zone. Instead of making a gory and self aware action packed Punisher adventure (and there is nothing wrong with that), Hensleigh chose to make a character driven origin story that plays out as one big revenge film. The film feels like an actual movie instead of just a Punisher action film. The plot moves at a slow but steady pace, the characters feel fully defined and motivated, and the action scenes come off as far more realistic too. Hensleigh even found a way to make his Punisher feel like a neo-Western. Read on to see how, "God is gonna sit this one out."

Double barreled action.

Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) is an undercover police officer. The film opens with one of his cases as Frank dons a disguise and goes by the name of "Otto Krieg." While selling guns to some low level thugs, the police show up and "shoot" Otto (all an act that makes it appear Otto has died). As Frank is carried off, one of the men buying the guns freaks out and raises his gun in the air. The police gun him down in a firey panic. For Frank, the death of his Otto Krieg character is his ticket out of the police force. He finally has the chance to retire and live out the rest of his days with his family.

However, what was freedom for Frank was nothing but pain and suffering for another. The man who was gunned down during the gun deal was one of the sons of Howard Saint (John Travolta). Saint is a powerful crime lord in Miami, Florida and he and his wife are not happy about the loss of their son. After some investigating from Saint's right hand man Quentin Glass (Will Patton), he discovers that Otto Krieg was no more than Frank Castle, an undercover cop. Glass' wife orders for Frank's entire family to murdered and Saint calls in the hit.

After Frank's entire bloodline (including his wife and son, geesh) is gunned down, Glass and his men take care of Frank. They shoot him and blow him off of a dock with a firey explosion. However, Frank miraculously survives and sets out to enact his revenge on Howard Saint, his family, and all of the men involved in his business. Frank doesn't just get revenge. Oh no. He deals some...PUNISHMENT! There is also a nice sub-plot concerning Frank making friends with his fellow apartment complex tenants.

The best present a father could ask for.

Hensleigh's Punisher loosely reinvents Frank's origin by combining elements from two Punisher graphic novels, Welcome Back Frank and Punisher: Year One. Welcome Back Frank shows the Punisher's life inside of an apartment complex while Year One revamps the Punisher's origins by culminating in a close quarters shootout. Hensleigh took the best elements of both of these books and reworked them into his own Punisher origin story. And in all honesty, I think that Hensleigh made my absolute favorite adaptation of the Punisher ever. Even more so than the comics. I love that Frank Castle is small and realistic like a Paul Kersey type character. He doesn't get in a thousand shootouts or kill hundreds of bad guys either. He's just a regular guy enacting revenge who becomes the Punisher along the way. It also helps that the film has the bloody and gritty realism of a '70's actioner like Walking Tall or Dirty Harry.

I think that Jane is very good as Frank Castle. Unlike Dolph Lundgren or Ray Stevenson, Thomas Jane is a really small guy. Therefore, his Frank Castle is smaller than any other Punisher before or after him. His size makes his character appear more vulnerable to physical attacks and this adds a sense of tension to the film whenever danger is afoot. Instead of being an unstoppable powerhouse who can run into a room blindly, Jane's Castle plans his attacks. He spends more of the movie making it look like Saint's wife is having an affair with his right hand man Quentin than killing people. Jane is more of a thinking man's Punisher and that's just the way I like him. It's always more interesting to watch someone plan their revenge and attacks instead of just blindly executing them.

I like Thomas Jane a lot and think he is a great actor. However, I feel like this is the only good action film of his career. Even though he is in numerous action pictures (Give 'Em Hell Malone, The Mutant Chronicles, Thursday), none of them seem to match the action greatness found here. I want to call Jane an action icon but feel that he hasn't had enough hits yet to garner such a title.

The best roommates a Punisher could ask for.

There is a lot of great supporting work on display in this film. I love all three of Frank's apartment complex buddies: Joan (Rebecca Romijn, X-Men 2), Spacker Dave (Ben Foster, The Mechanic), and Bumbo (John Pinette, comedian extraordinaire). These three characters are all misfits who have all seen better days. Therefore, they make the best of what they have and forge a small family of sorts amongst themselves. When Frank moves in next door, they all get curious about who he is and want to befriend him simply because it's the nice thing to do. By the end of the film, Joan and her friends end up saving Frank's life in more than one way. These characters and their sub-plot pay off in a big way and really help inject a lot of humanity into an otherwise violent vigilante film. The late Pinette and always good Foster are especially great as two bumbling pushovers. Action films need natural comedy and kind characters like these to help lessen a tense mood; not forced comedy and annoying characters (I'm looking at you Die Hard 2).

Surprisingly, the most underwhelming performance of the film is its main villain, Howard Saint. While I think that Travolta is a fantastic actor (Blow Out, Pulp Fiction), he is extremely underwhelming here. Travolta usually does a great job when he plays hammy and over the top villains in action films such as Broken Arrow, Face/Off, and Swordfish. Unfortunately, he is very mopey and one noted here. His talent to over act and steal a scene is completely wasted here because he isn't given much to work with either. This is a very serious and somber film anyways. Travolta might have worked better in the other two Punisher films because he would have been allowed to let loose.

There are some great supporting villain performances though. Will Patton (The Postman) is great as always as the right hand man, Quentin Glass. You never want to mess with any of Patton's characters. I also loved the two hit men that get sent after Frank. The first is the unforgettable Harry Heck (Mark Collie). Heck walks into a diner that Frank is eating at one morning. He pulls out his guitar and plays a great song titled "In Time". When Heck packs up his guitar and heads for the door, he turns toward Frank and states, "I wrote that song for you. I'm gonna play it at your funeral." Of course Heck ambushes Frank a few minutes later in an awesome action scene. But what an impression with such little screen time. Much like Heck, The Russian hitman leaves a big impression in action cinema with only a small amount of screen time.

"No Russian."

One of my favorite aspects of The Punisher is that the film comes off as a neo-Western a-la No Country for Old Men, A History of Violence, and Blue Ruin. The situations that lead up to the gun fights or the violence are all straight out of a Sergio Leone Euro-Western. Characters may talk with one another or be pre-occupied with something when violence breaks out of nowhere. Instead of going for senseless action, Hensleigh builds tension that explodes into short but memorable scenes. 

The most obvious Western-esque scene of the film occurs when Frank steals a bunch of money from a high rise building owned by Howard Saint. As he walks out into the lobby, he comes face to face with two of Saint's henchmen. Instead of just blasting one another, the three men put some distance between each other. They all pull their coats open and reveal their hand guns in their holsters. After some The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly eye shots, Frank whips out both of his Colt .45's and blasts the two goons to death. Such a great scene.

I also believe that Carlo Siliotto's score gives the film a grandiose Euro-Western vibe as well. It's very dramatic and operatic and sounds similar to what one might hear during a final duel in a film like For a Few Dollars More or The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The opening credits alone will send chills down your spine. Siliotto's beautiful score also packs some incredible themes during the more emotional moments of the film. I love this score so much that I own an audio disc of it. I highly recommend that you check out this film's haunting score whether you are a fan of this film or not.

However, this film's neo-Western vibe suffers from a bland setting. Miami, Florida is too bright of a place for this kind of film to take place in. If the filmmakers wanted to make this film gritty, than New York would obviously be the place. However, a setting like New Mexico would have really helped to add to the neo-Western-ness of the film. Anywhere but Miami, Florida would have been a better setting. 

What a splitting headache.

Unfortunately, I do have more negative qualms with this film to discuss. Besides being set in a visually uninteresting place, the film has no distinct visual style. None of the photography in this film stands out. The film looks like it could be any film of any genre. Images appear too hazy for my taste as well. I might sound crazy here so if anyone else has seen this film please chime in on this matter. I don't know how to put my finger on it.

I also really dislike the firey skull image that Frank produces by the end of the film. Before Frank enacts his final revenge on Saint and his henchmen in the film's bloody finale, he sets up a bunch of bombs in the parking lot outside of Saint's club. After Frank leaves the building, he sets off all of the bombs and creates the image of a firey skull. Why did the filmmakers think that such a silly and over the top thing was appropriate in such a dark, serious, and gritty film? It stands out like a sore thumb in an otherwise realistic vigilante neo-Western. This kind of thing would sit better in 2008's Punisher: War Zone, not this film.

Besides being a very slow and character driven story of revenge, Jonathan Hensleigh's Punisher remembers that it also has to please fans of bad ass cinema as well. All of the action scenes are memorable and great examples of how to shoot visually cohesive action. Besides the opening and closing set pieces, most of the action scenes are short but memorable bursts of violence. Hensleigh really took a page out of the Sergio Leone book of filmmaking and opted for suspense and tension over grandiose violence and Michael Bay-esque explosions.

However, Hensleigh does craft some action packed mayhem. Frank Castle rounds up a nice 22 person body count over the course of the film too and gets to participate in a variety of action scenes. I liked that the film found time to include a car chase, a huge fist fight, and lots of gun play. I like a good variety of action and I definitely got it with this film.

Jane brings the punishment.

I have watched The Punisher many times since its initial 2004 release. For my money, I think that the theatrical cut is much better than the extended cut. The extended cut adds a 17 minute sub-plot concerning Frank's friend and I think that the film is suited better off without it. The film is long and slow enough as it is at 2 hours and doesn't need to be pushing the 2 hour and 30 minute mark at all. Therefore, the theatrical cut is the best version of the film.

Fans clearly love Thomas Jane as the Punisher alot because he returned to the character in a fan made short in 2012 called, Dirty Laundry. The short can be found on YouTube and it is especially great to see Jane return to the character after so long. It seems that we will never get Jane as the Punisher ever again and it hurts to realize that. However, the fan made short he participated in will help ease the pain a little bit and I highly recommend it to those Punisher fans who haven't seen it.

Overall, I think this is an awesome comic book super-hero film. Fans of vigilante pictures like Death Wish and neo-Westerns like A History of Violence will find a lot to love here. It features a great lead performance, some truly excellent supporting performances, memorable hit men, a beautiful film score, and excellent but short action scenes. I will continue to watch this film as time goes on and I consider it to be one of the best R-rated superhero films ever made. And I would LOVE a sequel to this too! If you're out there Jonathan Hensleigh, make it happen!

Rating: 8/10 - Even though it is flawed, The Punisher is a great action film that I always enjoy revisiting. Great performances and excellent action scenes have sort of made this movie into a classic in my eyes.

Franchise:
The Punisher (dir. Mark Goldblatt, 1989)
The Punisher (dir. Jonathan Hensleigh, 2004)
Punisher: War Zone (dir. Lexi Alexander, 2008)