Bronson (2009)
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
A young man who was sentenced to 7 years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending 30 years in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter ego, Charles Bronson.
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13 films that influenced Bronson
What critics say influenced Bronson
At its best, Bronson is briefly capable of recalling the likes of A Clockwork Orange and Fight Club .
The director clearly has boned up on his source material, primarily Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” and, in a brothel sequence, David Lynch.
There are times during Bronson when it’s unclear what Refn is going for, and times when the movie seems like a derivative, extra-pretentious version of A Clockwork Orange.
(It's a second cousin to A Clockwork Orange .)
Refn gives his film a larky tone that often recalls "A Clockwork Orange" as Hardy flips back and forth from addressing the camera, often made up and from a stage, and acting out scenes from Peterson's life.
The combination of horrific violence, soaring music, and chilly stylistic precision that makes the whole thing feel like an experiment can only naturally call to mind A Clockwork Orange , which is in all ways a much better film.
Bronson is all the more troubling for being based on the true story of a violent lifer named Michael Gordon Peterson, who took the name "Charlie Bronson" in honour of actor Charles Bronson and his vengeful Death Wish character.
Peterson, who adopted for himself the name "Charles Bronson" in honor of that actor and his iconic turn in Death Wish , is called "Britain's most famous prisoner" in a title card at the end of the movie, and one gets the clear sense from the evidence onscreen that this is as agreeable a fate as he could have possibly chosen for himself; it seems indeed that the only motivation he has in life is to be infamous, whether it is among inmates, prison guards, or the population at large.
When he was let out for 68 days in 1988, boxing promoter Paul Daniels (Matt King, "RocknRolla") tried to trade in on his notoriety and renamed him for the tough guy Hollywood star of the "Death Wish" movies.
At an early age, after seeing " Death Wish ," young Michael took the name of Charles Bronson .
Tom Hardy gives an amazing performance as Peterson, who took on the nickname Charlie Bronson, after the "Death Wish" actor.
‘Bronson’’ bills itself as the story of Britain’s most notorious living prisoner, Michael Peterson, who early on in his 35 years in jail - 30 of them in solitary confinement - gave himself the “fighting name’’ of Charles Bronson, after the Hollywood star of “Death Wish.’’
He's called Charles Bronson, but he's not the taciturn tough guy actor who starred in "Death Wish" and "The Dirty Dozen."
Hardy embodies this bruiser, with his bald, beaming head and handlebar moustache, as a pure performance artist — frequently shown addressing an audience from the stage of his own mind (not unlike George C. Scott in Patton).
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That said, Winding Refn's aesthetic owes more to the collective work of Stanley Kubrick than just that one film - and in that connection, it is surely worth pointing out that Larry Smith worked on the sets of Barry Lyndon , The Shining , and Eyes Wide Shut , if the IMDb does not lie to me - and for any modern filmmaker to earn a comparison to Kubrick, even if that comparison ends with "aye, but he's not nearly as good at it", is an achievement in and of itself, demonstrating a clinical relationship towards his misanthropic subject matter that is not at all in style right now, if indeed it ever was.
But this is a breakout film for one of Britain’s most gifted and under-utilized actors, and if it’s to be remembered for anything, it will be as the Romper Stomper to a next generation’s Russell Crowe.
…but as we see this done in the film of the same subjects "Chopper" REALLY we do not gain any new insight or experience anything result of creative expression from watching this film.
His performance is on par with Eric Bana's fantastic transformation in "Chopper" (2000).
Bronson, while visually striking and with a powerful, dominating soundtrack, lacks the character and story development of its Australian counterpart Chopper.
Despite the naturalistic mayhem Refn deployed in his widely praised Pusher trilogy (violent, drug-dealer demimonde in darkest Denmark) and for all the bellowing fisticuffs here, Bronson is essentially a faux-operatic, music hall turn—a larky, lumpen version of Lola Montès.
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Perhaps Refn is afraid of the cliché: Certainly, from Birdman of Alcatraz onward, the screen has seen its trite share of the hardened-con-as-sensitive-artist prototype.
At its best, Bronson is briefly capable of recalling the likes of A Clockwork Orange and Fight Club .
A wanna-be anarchic Fight Club “chaos is the only real answer” overstylized mess, with a brave but pointless performance from Tom Hardy as a lifelong prisoner who just wants to destroy everything around him, most of all himself.