The Punisher (2004)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Punisher |
| Original title | The Punisher |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| length | 118 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jonathan Hensleigh |
| script | Jonathan Hensleigh Michael France |
| production |
Avi Arad Gale Anne Hurd |
| music | Carlo Siliotto |
| camera | Conrad W. Hall |
| cut |
Steven Kemper Jeff Gullo |
| occupation | |
| |
The Punisher is a 2004 American film based on a Marvel comic book called The Punisher . Another film adaptation comes from 1989 ( The Punisher ). Another film adaptation, called Punisher: War Zone , came out in 2008.
action
Frank Castle works as an undercover FBI agent with the Tampa Police Department . But because of his family, he wants to quit this dangerous job and move to London .
But something went wrong on his last mission: Bobby Saint, the son of the powerful underworld boss Howard Saint, was shot dead in a weapons deal at the docks in which he took part disguised as a dealer. He seeks revenge. He finds out that the person responsible for his son's death is actually FBI agent Frank Castle. He is currently at a family celebration in Puerto Rico . At the request of Saint's ice-cold wife Livia, not only Castle but also his entire family should be murdered. Saint sends a troop of henchmen, including his second son, Johnny, to Puerto Rico to carry out this mission.
When the killers, led by Saint's right-hand man Quentin Glass, arrive at the idyllic family celebration, a cruel massacre ensues: all of Frank Castle's relatives are mercilessly gunned down. Only he succeeds in defending himself and eliminating several of the enemies. His wife Maria and son Will, who were also able to hide in time, are now trying to escape from Saint's men. After a wild chase, however, they are overtaken on a landing stage and run over by Johnny with an off-road vehicle. Castle is late and only finds their bodies. He throws himself at the murderer in sheer anger, but is shot and overwhelmed. After beating him up, Saint's men set fire to the landing stage, leaving the badly wounded castle there. He appears to be killed in the explosion.
But in truth he was thrown into the sea and survived. He is found on the beach by a local fisherman who nurses him back to health. Castle now has only one goal: He wants to hold Howard Saint and his people accountable for the murder of his entire family. He equips himself with his dead father's arsenal and also finds his black shirt with the large skull, which his son had given him days before.
He is now returning to Tampa with his equipment and moving into a shabby apartment building. There he gets to know his new neighbors: the pretty but alcoholic waitress Joan, the piercing wearer Dave and the fat cook Bumbo. All three, like himself, are outsiders to society, and so he gradually becomes friends with them.
Meanwhile, he begins his campaign of revenge against Howard Saint and his empire. He grabs the small crook Micky Duka, who is in Saint's service, and elicits the greatest weaknesses of the underworld boss with an "ice-lolly" torture: his business, his right-hand man and friend Quentin Glass and his beloved wife Livia. Castle then forces Duka to work together.
From then on, Castle begins to manipulate Saint's business and destroy his money. He now knows that Castle has survived and puts the guitar-playing hit man Harry Heck on him. After a car chase, Castle Heck can kill at the last second with a modified switchblade.
To sow discord between Saint and his confidante Glass, Castle now initiates a perfidious plan. He “borrows” Livia's car for a short time and parks it in front of a hotel in such a conspicuously wrong way that he gets a ticket. There is thus “proof” of Livia's presence in this hotel. At the same time, Frank lures Quentin to the same hotel under a pretext.
Ultimately, he manages to ruin Saint's business completely and put it under pressure with his business partners. Beside himself with anger, Saint sets the next killer, the "Russian", on Castle after he has found his hiding place. There it comes to a fierce fight between Castle and the Russian, in the course of which the apartment building is pretty battered. Castle finally manages to pour a pot of boiling fat in the face of the strong Russian and throw him down a flight of stairs, causing the killer to break his neck. But at the same time another troop of Saints killers arrives. Joan still manages to hide with the castle, which has been injured by the close combat. Saint's men try to extract information about Castle's whereabouts from Dave and Bumbo. But they remain brave and do not betray their boyfriend, despite all the pain Quentin inflicts on Dave by tearing out his piercings.
After Castle regains his strength, he decides to end the matter for good. He breaks into Quentin's house and places one of Livia Saint's earring there. He also lets his camouflaged assistant Micky Duka make hints to Howard Saint that his wife and his most important confidante could have a secret affair with each other. Especially since Duka Saint pretends to have seen Glass in this hotel on a certain day, when Livia was obviously there too. Castle's plan works, Saint becomes suspicious. In fact, he now searches Quentin's house, finds the earring and is now convinced that he was betrayed. He furiously kills both of them: first he stabs Quentin, who was actually homosexual , and shortly afterwards throws his wife off a bridge in front of a moving train.
Saint then has all of his men gathered in his private club to put a bounty on Castle. But he has already taken position in front of the club and is preparing to storm him heavily armed. He inconspicuously kills the guards at the entrance and on the lower floor of the club with his bow. After placing a mine in a drink cooler, he sends it up to Saint and his people. After the mine exploded, he went up and shot down the surprised and wounded enemies one by one. However, Saint can escape in the mess for now. After the shootout, Castle Saint's second son hands one of his mines and activates it. Since he is jammed by a shelf and can no longer free himself, you can see him pleading for his life with the lead in his hand. The battered Saint tries to escape, but is stopped in front of the Castle Club. When Castle tells Saint that he took everything from him, and Saint replies that Castle was responsible for the death of one of his sons, Johnny can be heard screaming in the background, followed by an explosion. A brief exchange of fire ensues in which Saint is defeated. Castle now reveals to the saint lying on the ground that he fell for his plan and killed his wife and best friend for no reason. Then he ties Saint to the bumper of a car and puts the car into gear so that Saint drags Saint across the parking lot, where he has put mines on all the cars and now lets them explode. He lets Howard Saint perish in the inferno of flames. You can now see from a bird's eye view that the burning cars are forming the skull of his shirt.
Finally he returns to the apartment building and tries to kill himself there. But when he has to think of his wife Maria, he realizes that a different fate is destined for him. He thanks his neighbors for everything and, before he leaves, leaves them stacks of money that he stole from Howard Saint.
The last scene shows Castle standing on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at sunset . He vows to fight and exterminate the criminals. He now calls himself a Punisher .
background
The budget for the film was $ 33 million. In total, the film grossed $ 115 million, of which 55 million were at the box office, the rest from DVD sales.
In addition to the weeks plot and the beginning of the Second Gulf War, the actual script contained the figure of the “microchip”. However, since director Hensleigh did not like the character, he was deleted again. In Punisher: War Zone , the figure of the Microchip appears.
In the film, Frank Castle keeps a parking space for himself by placing his own red hydrant next to the parking lot on the sidewalk before driving away. Parking in front of a fire hydrant is illegal in the United States, so the parking lot had to remain empty. Hensleigh knew someone who kept parking spaces free in Manhattan for two years.
Had the film been shot from the original script, it would have been 2 hours and 56 minutes long, without budget cuts and violence.
The rifles Mickey and Bobby want to buy at the beginning of the film are G36C assault rifles from Heckler & Koch.
The wrestler Kevin Nash plays the hit man known as "the Russian".
Cut versions
Shortly before the planned theatrical release, there were problems with the FSK : "The examination board refused the film the certificate 'no youth release ' because of excessive portrayal of violence and tendencies that are questionable under the rule of law and inhuman attitudes". Only after a shortening of around 90 seconds could the film be brought to the cinema with the certificate “no youth release” (corresponds to the earlier “FSK from 18”). However, at the same time an English version was shown in German cinemas, which was completely unabridged. On DVD , however, the strip was released uncut (marked as extended version ), with approx. 118 ( PAL ) minutes. Since the FSK the uncut film refused to release, he got an SPIO / JK - Signet . This extended version of the action film was indexed on March 31, 2005, as expected . The distributor then released the cut theatrical version on DVD in 2006, which can be freely offered in stores. In August 2019, the uncut version of the film was removed from the index and released from the age of 18.
In the English-speaking world there is an extended cut in addition to the German extended version . This is a total of 144.5 minutes. The Extended Cut contains a complete sub-plot about the policeman Jimmy Weeks, which was cut out from all other versions. As bonus material, the DVD of the extended cut also shows the intro actually present in the script as an animated version.
German dubbed version
The German dubbing was done at Hermes Synchron in Potsdam . The dialogue book was written by Elisabeth von Molo , who also directed the dubbing .
| actor | German speaker | role |
|---|---|---|
| Thomas Jane | Thomas Nero Wolff | Frank Castle / The Punisher |
| John Travolta | Thomas Danneberg | Howard Saint |
| Will Patton | K. Dieter Klebsch | Quentin Glass |
| Rebecca Romijn | Andrea Loewig | Joan |
| Ben Foster | Stefan Krause | Dave |
| John Pinette | Michael Iwannek | Bumbo |
| Roy Scheider | Jürgen Thormann | Mr. Castle Sr. |
| Samantha Mathis | Bianca Krahl | Maria Castle |
| Marco St. John | Eberhard Prüter | Chief Morris |
| Mark Collie | Jan Spitzer | Harry Heck |
| A. Russell Andrews | Thomas Petruo | Jimmy Weeks |
| Omar Avila | Dennis Schmidt-Foss | Joe Toro |
| James Carpinello | Robin Kahnmeyer | John Saint |
| Laura Harring | Arianne Borbach | Livia Saint |
| Eddie Jemison | Gerald Schaale | Mickey Duka |
| Eduardo Yáñez | Sebastian Christoph Jacob | Mike Toro |
| Marcus Johns | Lucas Mertens | Will Castle |
Reviews
“[…] What is remarkable about this comic book adaptation is the drawing of the characters. While the characters in the superhero genre can be clearly cataloged into good and bad, there are shades of gray here. Ex-Cop Castle is no less squeamish than his opponents when it comes to choosing his means, and it is not uncommon for him to move outside of legality. It's hard to imagine that Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent would act like that. The stars also contribute to the refreshingly otherness of this comic adaptation. Although John Travolta plays the bad boy almost bored and routine, with the unvarnished Rebecca Romjin-Stamos and Thomas Jane (' Deep Blue Sea '), two fresh faces present themselves that one would like to see more often in the future. Conclusion: Successful comic adaptation with good stunts, a convincing story and lots of humor. "
“All in all, 'The Punisher' unfortunately fails in too many points and is thus just below average. Even those who only expect action will be disappointed - apparently nobody here had any new ideas. The finale consists largely of the Punisher placing a mine in a room, storming into the room after the explosion and shooting the gangsters who gradually wake up in a rather unspectacular manner. Much seems ridiculous, such as the shotgun shot sunk accurately in the Punisher's stomach from half a meter away, which the Kevlar vest naturally stops. Something like that is difficult to write in the category 'Well, comic film adaptation' and casts doubt on the humanity of the character, who is what is special about the Punisher. All of this is framed by an unspectacular to annoying soundtrack, which might have needed the rock from the credits. "
“Real-life film adaptation of a Marvel comic from the 1970s, which is noticeable at best because of its brutality and an extremely cynical attitude. Bizarre secondary characters and hints of irony hardly soften the tough film, which openly flirts with sadistic vigilante justice. "
Awards
The film won the 2005 Taurus Awards in the Best Fire category. He also received nominations in the categories of Best Work With A Vehicle, Best Stunt of a Woman (Best Overall Stunt By A Stunt Woman) and Best Stunt Coordinator (Best Stunt Coordinator And / Or 2nd Unit Director).
continuation
In 2008, a sequel was released entitled Punisher: War Zone . Ray Stevenson took on the role of Punisher . The reason for this was that Thomas Jane didn't like the script. The director of the first part, Jonathan Hensleigh, also dropped out because of the poor script and budget cuts. The film flopped in the USA and was therefore released in Germany on DVD and Blu-Ray.
In 2012 Thomas Jane presented the self-produced 10-minute short film The Punisher: Dirty Laundry at San Diego Comic Con , in which he slips back into the role of the antihero after eight years. Jane said he produced the film because he still has a great passion for the character of the punisher. In addition to Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman can also be seen in a supporting role.
Web links
- The Punisher in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Punisher at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- The Punisher at Metacritic (English)
- The Punisher in the online movie database
- The Punisher in the German dubbing index
- Comparison of the cut versions FSK 18 Premiere - Spio / JK , German soundtrack - original soundtrack , uncut theatrical version - Extended Cut , Pro 7 from 18 - Spio / JK , no youth release - SPIO / JK by The Punisher [2004] at Schnittberichte.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ boxofficemojo.com: The Punisher
- ↑ a b c d Internet Movie Database : Background information
- ↑ http://www.ksta.de/html/artikel/1084553319345.shtml ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.ofdb.de/view.php?page=fassung&fid=48232&vid=111873
- ↑ schnittberichte.com, accessed on August 6, 2019
- ↑ http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=3623
- ↑ http://www.comingsoon.net/news/dvdreviewsnews.php?id=17657
- ↑ a b c The Punisher. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on September 14, 2014 .
- ↑ Cinema.de: film review
- ^ Filmstarts.de: film review
- ↑ The Punisher. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 31, 2017 .
- ↑ Via Punisher: Dirty Laundry at Cinemablend.com (English); Retrieved July 17, 2012.
