I never regularly collected superhero comic books growing up. I read them here and there but only acquired them from others, in showbags or in other ways that… weren’t regular. I assume this was true for many in my circle as I didn’t have any friends that did either and the only comics I had readily available were Tintin and Asterix which were available in my school library. I mostly knew about superhero characters through the Batman and Superman films and television series’ such as the X-Men and Spider-Man: The Animated Series. It was the latter where I was first introduced to Frank Castle ‘The Punisher’ and also around the same time period I played the home port of the Capcom arcade game also titled The Punisher.
I was immediately attracted to the character though he was (from memory), portrayed antagonistically in the series which was also how he was first introduced to Spider-Man fans in the 1970s. I don’t remember whether I consciously sympathised with his more ruthless methods of dealing with criminals in contrast with Spider-Man but I know I did immediately like him. Years went by following this until my early adulthood when I saw the 2004 The Punisher film adaptation starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta.
The Punisher was the directorial debut of Jonathan Hensleigh and released when Marvel comic book films were seeing wide success. Though there were plenty of significant comic book adaptations throughout the 1990s, it was the first X-Men film and especially 2002’s Spider-Man where things really took off for Marvel. Both of these films also had even more successful sequels released in 2003 and 2004 and within these years there was also a Hulk film and Fantastic Four in 2005 before the Marvel Cinematic Universe began with Iron Man in 2008. Though The Punisher was far from a disaster, it was not critically or financially successful and at least from my experience anecdotally, was not consistently liked, disliked, loved or hated. I expect that most people who went to see it that weren’t film critics enjoyed it and it was probably comic book purists and the critics that had the most negative things to say about it.
It was no doubt my rather limited familiarity with the character and comic book that helped me enjoy the film initially because it does take a number of departures from the source material that would have understandably bothered purists. The most obvious being the setting which is moved to Tampa, Florida instead of New York City. This I assume, is mostly down to budget constraints as the budget was 33 milllion dollars which was much smaller than many contemporary films and the casting alone would have eaten into most of that. It also changed the circumstances of Frank Castle’s already gruesome origin story. The film sees not only his immediate but most of his extended family murdered while at a family reunion. This was in direct reprisal for the death of Howard Saint’s (Travolta) son being killed in the opening sting where Castle is introduced as a rather unconvincing though certainly theatrical gangster. These two departures are significant but the film still took plenty of inspiration from the comic books as well.
The most noticeable are evident in the supporting cast which are taken from Garth Ennis’ Welcome Back, Frank series which I have since read. These three oddballs Spacker Dave (Ben Foster), Joan (Rebecca Romijn) and Bumpo (John Pinette) are both Castle’s frequently terrified neighbours and aspiring friends. They serve to both lighten the intensity of the narrative and humanise the character. I’ve seen criticism of the tonal shift caused by the scenes involving them but I think they work, especially Joan as the “will-they-won’t-they” love interest to Castle.
The film works best though with its simple revenge/vigilante narrative which I have always liked regardless of how played out it is. There are plenty of examples both before and after including Death Wish, The Crow, Taken and Law Abiding Citizen among many others. The examples I include are ones that have the criminals dealt with brutally where the law has clearly failed to do so. This is the basic set-up for The Punisher. Frank Castle’s family are murdered by the Saint family and he sets out to methodically destroying their organisation and their entire family in the process. Though there are a satisfying number of shoot-outs, most of this destruction is done indirectly which is helped by enlisting a sympathetic insider Mickey (Eddie Jemison) to help him along the way. As a brief aside, Castle’s method of recruiting Mickey is not only entertaining but fits perfectly with the character. So the Punisher not only attacks the organisation directly but also plays on the mind of the family’s patriarch as this takes place.
Outside of the explosive finale, there are relatively few action scenes in the film and I expect this was mainly due to the aforementioned budget constraints. Castle has two memorable encounters with hired assassins including Harry Heck played by country singer Mark Collie and ‘The Russian’ played by professional wrestler Kevin Nash. The latter is another character directly from the Garth Ennis comics and Nash was apparently stabbed by a real knife during one of the best scenes in the film.
It is the characters in particular that really hold this film together including Saint’s closet homosexual right-hand man Quinten, played by Will Patton and his ruthless wife Livia played by Laura Harring; who justifies Castle’s actions by calling for his family to be wiped out after learning his identity. It is Thomas Jane’s portrayal of Frank Castle though that really elevates the film and he remains my favourite actor to take the role to this day. Other actors who have played The Punisher include Dolph Lundgren, Ray Stevenson and most recently, Jon Bernthal who all have their good points but I believe fall short of Jane overall.
Thomas Jane also did the voice of Frank Castle in The Punisher video game that came out in 2005 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox though it is not based on this film. The next film, The Punisher: Warzone followed a few years after starring Stevenson and has no continuity with this film and is much closer to the more recent comics. There is also an unofficial 2012 short film, The Punisher: Dirty Laundry with Thomas Jane returning for the role which is worth watching. He is really too old to play the character now but I still consider him the best.
The film is frequently violent but nowhere near as much as Warzone, the Netflix series or the comics the adaptations take the most material from. As I’m sure I’ve stated before, I don’t like the gratuitous violence and I think this does somewhat miss the point of the character. It is the fact that he kills and not the way he goes about it that is at the heart of the character. He isn’t simply a murderous vigilante. The early comics certainly weren’t like this and I would prefer that more inspiration was taken from these than the latter — particularly those written by Garth Ennis. The main appeal of The Punisher is that he deals decisively with the criminals the way the justice system frequently (and often deliberately), fails to do. This also explains the character’s enduring appeal and why I every so often come back and re-watch this film in particular.