The Marvels of Shame: Punisher version 1989 with Dolph Lundgren

In the late 80s, Marvel Comics had just been bought by New World Pictures, and the studio was hoping for a return on its investment. An action film about the character of Frank Castle, nicknamed the Punisher, began. He trusts Mark Goldblatt, RoboCop second unit director and editor of Terminator 1 and 2, Rambo 2, Starship Troopers, Commando or True Lies.

Goldblatt came out with the horror comedy Cop or Zombie (1988) starring Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo. When he is entrusted with the Punisher, he tries to make a movie as violent as the character in the comics. He wants to offer the title role to Christophe Lambert, who comes from Agnieszka Holland’s conspiracy and who has the international success of Highlander, released in 1986.

Only, Lambert sprains his ankle before filming begins and leaves the role to star in Gene Quintano’s Inferno. Without a lead actor, Goldblatt is turning to Dolph Lundgren, a colossus karate practitioner who was introduced to the general public by Rocky IV and recently starred in Masters of the Universe.

Filming took place from August to October 1988, plus reshoots in 1989, with regular cast members as well as stunt athletes, including Lundgren.

The feature film begins after mob member Dino Moretti is released from prison after being acquitted of the massacre of the Castle family 5 years earlier. Since then, the mysterious “vigilante” has been destroying underworld crooks one by one and using violent methods in the name of the Punisher.

This “vigilante” follows Moretti during the fight, then the camera pans to the sewers to show Frank Castle naked in front of an altar he has erected and in front of which he wonders about the tragic fate of his family.

On the mafia side, the mafia wants to organize themselves to respond to the massacre orchestrated by the Punisher, but Yakuza leader Hideko Tanaka pulls the rug from under them and takes advantage of their weakness to make it known that he runs the mafia’s affairs by collecting 75% of the profits. The tension is palpable.

Except that this promising intrigue is not sufficiently exploited throughout the film and the audience has to settle for a script that does not bother with coherence, a twist that will leave it globally indifferent.

The Punisher is poorly shot and has some poorly choreographed stunts, the main culprit being the editing. On the other hand, Dennis Dreith’s music deserves it repetition.

Fans will wake up to the sequences in the dojo after 1 hour of the film, especially the massacre of thirty fighters by the Punisher: effective and impressive. Unfortunately it is too short.

The feature film reportedly had a difficult post-production with Boaz Yakin’s script reworked by producer Robert Mark Kamen (adding a prologue ending in flashbacks) and the Motion Picture Association of America calling for less violence. A different ending.

In fact, The Punisher is quite beloved by comic book fans who find in it the spirit of the character they love, are attached to Dolph Lundgren, and have a lingering nostalgia for this movie that doesn’t take itself for what it is.

It should be remembered that in 1989, comic book adaptations were limited to cheap TV movies about the Hulk starring Lou Ferrigno (including Thor discussed here), and that the Punisher then fulfilled the benchmark, rising to a faithful adaptation imperfect, but still better than all the others.

So should we look at the film in today’s eyes and only judge it by its intrinsic quality, pretty bad or soften our weight by considering what the film represented for an entire generation of comics? It’s up to you!