The Punisher
Short description
Frank Castle, a police officer, survives a mob car bombing that kills his wife and daughter. Believed dead by nearly everyone, he withdraws into the city's sewer system and spends five years waging a private war on organized crime, killing gangsters one by one. His former partner, Jake Berkowitz, comes to suspect that the vigilante the press calls the Punisher and the missing Castle are the same man. When a power struggle breaks out among the crime families, the Yakuza move in, and Castle is drawn back into the open to protect innocent people caught between the rival factions.
The film is Mark Goldblatt's second feature as director, following Dead Heat the previous year, and was written by Boaz Yakin. Dolph Lundgren plays Frank Castle, with Louis Gossett Jr. as Berkowitz, Jeroen Krabbé as mob boss Gianni Franco, and Kim Miyori as Lady Tanaka. It runs 89 minutes and was made for about 9 million dollars.
Audience response has been modest: on IMDb it holds 5.7 out of 10 from roughly 28,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.8 out of 10 from a much smaller pool of 713 votes. A critics' rating of 3.6 out of 10 from 17 reviews places it well below even those middling audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was released widely in all countries except the USA.
- Initially, the film was supposed to be shot on a tiny budget with unknown Australian actors.
- The director's cut is 17 minutes longer than the theatrical version.
- The main criticism from fans of the Punisher comic book was dissatisfaction with the absence of Dolph Lundgren's "signature" Skull on the hero's t-shirt.
- The film was shot in the city of Sydney, Australia.
- Producer Robert Mark Kamen, having seen Dolph Lundgren's size firsthand, demanded that he lose about 14 kg. The reason was that according to the plot, Frank Castle lives in a dungeon, eats whatever he finds, and doesn't always have the opportunity to train. Therefore, he couldn't look so huge. Dolph completed the task.
- The Punisher was created by Gerry Conway, Johnny Romita, and Ross Andru and first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #129 (1974).
- At the end of the film, former partner Jake Berkovich is on the roof of a building with railings; in another shot, he leans against the concrete barriers without railings of another building, from which, apparently, a more picturesque view of the city could have been filmed.
- In reality, Japanese Yakuza do not have women in their organization, let alone female bosses.
- Mark Goldblatt received perhaps the smallest fee among all the film's creators.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
