The Punisher

The Punisher (1989)

If society won't punish the guilty, he will.

The avenging angel of Marvel Comics fame comes brilliantly to life in this searing action-adventure thriller! Dolph Lundgren stars as Frank Castle, a veteran cop who loses his entire family to a mafia car bomb. His ex-partner believes Castle survived the blast and became the Punisher, living in the sewers and exacting vigilante violence against mob bosses throughout the city. When the populace is caught in the midst of a gang war that he caused, Castle must again emerge from the shadows and save the innocent.

Date of release
1989-10-05
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (733)
Runtime
1h 29m
Genres
Action, Crime, Drama
Director
Mark Goldblatt

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $9M
  • Filmed in: Sydney

The Punisher is a 1989 vigilante action film directed by Mark Goldblatt from a screenplay by Boaz Yakin, based on the Marvel Comics character of same name. It stars Dolph Lundgren in the title role, a vigilante who wages war on the Mafia and Yakuza. Louis Gossett, Jr., Jeroen Krabbé, Kim Miyori and Barry Otto co-star.

Production

New World Pictures acquired the rights to The Punisher after acquiring Marvel Entertainment Group, the parent company of Marvel Comics, in 1986. However, this was the only film adaptation of a Marvel Comics character produced by New World. The Punisher was ultimately one of the last films to be produced by the company. The film does not utilize any other characters from the Punisher comics, other than the title character.

As Mark Goldblatt was finishing up with Dead Heat, New World sent Goldblatt an early draft of The Punisher script. Goldblatt had no prior knowledge of the Marvel Comics character the Punisher, and when he read the draft he equated it with "a Friday the 13th in sheep's clothing". Describing the film, Goldblatt said:

It was an instant turn-off. It was as if Jason had a cape. The script was totally dark, and the character was a complete psychopath. The story had potential, but I remember thinking "This script has many problems".

After Goldblatt voiced his thoughts to New World, he was informed the executives liked the script the way it was and broke off discussion to return to finishing up Dead Heat. Eventually someone within New World did decide the script had problems and producer Robert Mark Kamen was brought on board to rework the script. Once the script was offered to Goldblatt, he felt that many of his issues had been addressed by Kamen and agreed.

We were striving for realism . . . This guy lives in a sewer pipe with a Harley. He wouldn't take the time to get a Lycra suit with a skull on it. He's not the kind of guy who gets spiffed up before he goes out to kill. His clothes are utilitarian.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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