''The Punisher'' is a 1989 American

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by

Mark Goldblatt Mark Goldblatt is an Academy Award nominated American film editor and film director and president emeritus of the American Cinema Editors. Brooklyn born Goldblatt studied at the University of Wisconsin and London Film School, where his instru ...

, written by

Boaz Yakin Boaz Yakin ( he, בועז יכין, born June 20, 1966) is an Israeli-American screenwriter, film director, and producer based in New York City. He has written screenplays to films like ''The Rookie'', ''Fresh'', ''A Price Above Rubies'', '' ...

, and starring

Dolph Lundgren Hans Lundgren (, ; born 3 November 1957), better known as Dolph Lundgren, is a Swedish actor, filmmaker and martial artist. His breakthrough came in 1985, when he starred in ''Rocky IV'' as the imposing Soviet boxer Ivan Drago. Since then, Lu ...

and

Louis Gossett Jr. Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. (born May 27, 1936) is an American actor. Born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, He had his stage debut at the age of 17, in a school production of '' You Can't Take It with You.'' Shortly after he successfully ...

Based on the

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

' character of the same name, the film changes many details of the character's comic book origin and the main character does not wear the trademark "skull" shirt. Instead the character uses the knife with the skull. Shot in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia, ''The Punisher'' co-stars Jeroen Krabbé,

Kim Miyori Kim Miyori (born Cheryl Utsunomiya; January 4, 1951) is an American actress, best known for the role of Dr. Wendy Armstrong, a beleaguered resident, on the first two seasons (1982–1984) of the medical drama '' St. Elsewhere''. Miyori was born ...

Nancy Everhard Nancy Everhard (born November 30, 1957) is an American former actress. She became known for her roles in the films ''DeepStar Six'' (1989) and '' The Punisher'' (1989). She also appeared in television series such as '' Reasonable Doubts'' (1991� ...

, and

Barry Otto Barry Otto (born 1941) is an Australian actor, primarily of Australian cinema, cinema, and an amateur artist. Early life Barry Otto was born in Brisbane in 1941, the son of a butcher. He trained as an artist but switched to acting. Career Otto ...

Plot

Frank Castle The Punisher (Francis "Frank" Castle, born Castiglione) is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru. The Punisher ma ...

is a former undercover police detective and

U.S. Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...

whose wife Julie was killed five years ago, along with their two daughters, by a

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

car bomb intended for Frank who is also presumed to be dead. Castle has since become the city's most wanted, and most mysterious, vigilante - known only as "

The Punisher The Punisher (Francis "Frank" Castle, born Castiglione) is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru. The Punisher made ...

". He now lives in the labyrinthine sewer-system of NYC, having assassinated 125 mobsters (not counting henchmen) in the past half-decade. His work is known by the use of special throwing-knives engraved with a skull. Castle's sole ally in his one-man war against organized crime is Shake (taken from

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

and "the shakes"), a stage-performer-turned derelict who typically speaks in rhyme. The underworld families have become so weakened by the Punisher's guerrilla warfare that kingpin Gianni Franco is forced out of retirement. Franco plans to unify the decimated families. However, this attracts unwanted attention from the

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ...

, Asia's most powerful crime syndicate. Led by Lady Tanaka, the Yakuza decide to take over the Mafia families and all of their interests. In order to sway the mobsters to their cause, they kidnap their children and hold them for ransom. Shake pleads with the Punisher to save the children, who are likely to be sold into the Arab slave trade regardless of whether the Mafia give into the demands. The Punisher attacks Yakuza businesses, warning that for every day the children are held in captivity, he will inflict heavy costs on them in property damage. The Yakuza later capture the Punisher and Shake and attempt to torture them into submission, but the Punisher breaks free and decides the only course of action is a direct rescue. He is able to save most of the children and commandeers a bus to get the kidnapped children to safety. However prior to this Tommy Franco, the son of Gianni Franco, had been taken away to Yakuza headquarters. When driving the busload of kids, the Punisher runs into a police roadblock and is arrested. While in custody Castle is reunited with one of his old partners, who warns his multiple killings will likely get him executed, however at a later point Castle is broken out of jail by Franco's men. Franco admits he brought this on himself as the hit on Castle's family was an error, and persuades the Punisher to help him save his son. Castle agrees to work with his old enemy for the sake of stopping the Japanese criminal underworld from taking root in America. Franco and the Punisher raid the Yakuza headquarters, fight and kill all the Yakuza, including Lady Tanaka and her daughter. Upon being reunited with his son, Franco betrays the Punisher, but the Punisher defends himself and kills Franco. Franco's son Tommy then threatens the Punisher for killing his father, but cannot bring himself to take revenge. Castle warns Gianni Franco's son, Tommy Franco, to "stay a good boy, and grow up to be a good man", not following his father's misdeeds. He also warns he will return should the boy commit any crimes, then disappears. The police arrive, only to find no trace of the Punisher. Meanwhile, at his lair, Castle narrates that he'll be waiting "in the shadows."

Cast

as Francis "Frank" Castle / The Punisher *

as Detective Jake Berkowitz * Jeroen Krabbé as Gianni Franco *

as Lady Tanaka * Bryan Marshall as Dino Moretti *

as Detective Samantha "Sam" Leary *

as "Shake" * Brian Rooney as Tommy Franco * Zoska Aleece as Tanaka's Daughter (Zoshka Mizak) * Larry McCormick as TV Newsreader * Kenji Yamaki as Sato, Tanaka's Bodyguard *

Todd Boyce Todd Boyce (born July 1, 1961) is an American film, television and theatre actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Stephen Reid in the successful soap opera ''Coronation Street'' from 1996 to 1997, 2007 and again from 2022. Early life Todd ...

as Tarrone * Hirofumi Kanayama as Tomio, Tanaka's Bodyguard *

Lani John Tupu Lani Tupu (born Auckland, New Zealand), billed variously as Larney Tupu, John Tupu and Lani John Tupu, is a New Zealand-born actor of Samoan and English descent. Also known as Lani Tupu Jr. Biography Tupu was born in 1955 to an English mother ...

as Laccone * Giancarlo Negroponte as Musso * May Lloyd as Julie Castle * Brooke Anderson as Annie Castle * Holly Rogers as Felice Castle *

Char Fontane Char "Kaci" Fontane (January 12, 1952 – April 1, 2007) was an American actress and singer. She was born Kerry Charae Fontane in Los Angeles, to singer Tony Fontane and his wife, actress Kerry Vaughn Fontane. Early in her career, Fontane wo ...

as Laurie Silver * Isao Hirata as Ito * Brett Williams as Tim * David Arnett as Joe *

Donal Gibson Donal Gibson is an American actor and the younger brother of award-winning actor/director Mel Gibson. Biography Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York. He has done voice acting in television shows such as ''ReBoot'' and ''Justice League Unli ...

as Bill * Lawrence Woodward as Mickey * Johnny Raaen as Joey * Robert Simper as Danny * Brian McDermott as O'Banion * Colin Leong as Cutter Captain *

Christian Manon Christian Manon (born 5 January 1950) is a French-Australian actor based in Sydney, best known for his work in theatre. His most notable film role was Mael in the film adaptation of the Anne Rice novel, ''Queen of the Damned''. Credits Manon i ...

as French Leader * Fotis Pelekis as Mario * James Klein as Nicholas * Robert Fraser as Robert * Dominic Baudish as Dominic * Cathy Stirk as Caterina * Emily Nicol as Cathy * Courtney Keiler as Sophia * Noga Bernstein as Ginny * Emma Soloman as Ginny's Girlfriend

Production

Christopher Lambert Christophe Guy Denis "Christopher" Lambert (; ; born March 29, 1957) is a French-American actor, producer, and novelist. He started his career playing supporting parts in several French films, and became internationally famous for portraying Ta ...

was the original choice for the role of Frank Castle. But an ankle injury forced him to withdraw from the film.

Steven Seagal Steven Frederic Seagal (; born April 10, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter and martial artist. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan and eventually ended up running his father-in-l ...

was interested in playing the role.

Nicole Kidman Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...

was initially cast. Despite rumors,

Michael Paré Michael Kevin Paré (born October 9, 1958) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''Eddie and the Cruisers'' (1983), '' Streets of Fire'' (1984), and '' The Philadelphia Experiment'' (1984), and on the series ''Starhun ...

was not considered for the role of Frank Castle. Production took place in Sydney.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p126

Music

A full orchestral score was composed and conducted by

Dennis Dreith Dennis Dreith (born June 15, 1948 in Glendale, California) is a musician, record producer and a television & motion picture composer, arranger, and conductor. He is also known as an influential advocate for performer's rights. Life Dreith sho ...

at the

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

soundstage in Burbank, California. A CD of the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

was not released until July 19, 2005 (

Perseverance Records Perseverance Records is a record label which releases film scores on CD and online. Releases are usually accompanied by extensive booklets. Extras, such as audio interviews with composers, are also sometimes included. Discography * *''No Pass ...

, PRD006). The CD includes the complete multi-track stereo recording, as well as a 22-minutes interview with the composer Dennis Dreith and the director Mark Goldblatt. Perseverance Records also released a new 5.1 mix as a SACD, in collaboration wit
Tarantula Records
(TARAN001). The American DVD release only contains a monaural (single track) soundtrack, despite the film being mixed in Dolby Stereo. The 2013 German and UK Blu-ray/DVD editions were presented with 2.0 and 5.1 (Dolby Digital and DTS-HD MA) sound tracks although the UK disc was made from mono tracks.

Release

Theatrical

The film was given a worldwide theatrical release, except in the United States, Sweden, and South Africa. The film was originally slated for a US release in August 1989, as trailers were created by New World promoting the film. The film premiered in Germany and France in October 1989 and it was shown months later at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Sci-fi Convention in July 1990. However, the film never received a wide theatrical release in the United States due to New World's financial difficulties and its new owners not having an interest in theatrical distribution.

Home media

It was sold to Live Entertainment (now Lionsgate) who released it direct-to-video on VHS and Laserdisc in April 1991. It finally premiered at the 2008 Escapism Film Festival in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

where director

screened his own personal 35mm print (which he showed again in April 2009 at the

Film Fest hosted by the New Beverly theater).

Reception

Critical response

Review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gave the film an approval rating of 28% based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 3.75/10. The site's consensus states: "Despite the seemingly indestructible Dolph Lundgren with a crossbow, ''The Punisher'' is a boring one-man battle with never-ending action scenes". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 63 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Christopher Null Christopher Null is an American writer, film critic, and columnist. A former blogger for Yahoo! Tech, he was the editor of Drinkhacker.com, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Filmcritic.com, which operated from 1995 to 2012. In 2003, CNN cal ...

gave the film 1 out of 5, stating the film was "marred by cheeseball sets and special effects, lame fight sequences, and some of the worst acting ever to disgrace the screen."

MTV.com MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

cited it as an example of a failed comic book film, complaining that the film omitted aspects of the character that made him compelling, and would have served better following closer to the plot of the source material. Whilst criticizing the film's storyline and acting, ''Time Out'' magazine concluded the film was "destructive, reprehensible, and marvelous fun". ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

''s movie guide gave the film three out of four stars, praising Lundgren's portrayal of the character and compared the characterization of the Punisher to that of

Frank Miller Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic book writer, penciller and inker, novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer known for his comic book stories and graphic novels such as his run on ''Daredevil'' and subsequen ...

's re-imagining of

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

in ''

The Dark Knight Returns ''The Dark Knight Returns'' (alternatively titled ''Batman: The Dark Knight Returns'') is a 1986 four-issue comic book miniseries starring Batman, written by Frank Miller, illustrated by Miller and Klaus Janson, with color by Lynn Varley, and pub ...

''. They further praised the film's atmosphere, calling it "genuinely comic book-like, rather than cartoonish".

Legacy

In 1989, Dolph Lundgren revealed that he was trying something different and he liked The Punisher. In 1990, New World promoted The Punisher II and The X-MEN animated film, but there have been no further development news. The 1990 tie-in video game ''

'' featured images from the film in the commercial. There are some similarities between the film and 1993 Punisher Game such as the assault on a casino by breaking through the ceiling and the female assassin. In 2019, Lundgren reprised the role in a photo shoot.

Other media

Comic books

In June 1990, a 64-page comic adaption of the film, written by

Carl Potts Carl Potts (born November 12, 1952) is an American comics artist, writer, teacher, and editor best known for creating the series '' Alien Legion'' for the Marvel Comics imprint Epic Comics. Early life Born in Oakland, California, and raised in t ...

and pencilled by

Brent Anderson Brent Anderson may refer to: * Brent Anderson (comics) (born 1955), American comics artist * Brent Anderson (singer) Brent Anderson (born in Pascagoula, Mississippi) is an American country music singer. He has charted on Hot Country Songs with t ...

, was released by Marvel.

Reboot

In 2004 a reboot starring

Thomas Jane Thomas Jane (born Thomas Elliott III; February 22, 1969) is an American actor. He is known for appearing in the films Padamati Sandhya Ragam (1987), ''Boogie Nights'' (1997), ''Deep Blue Sea (1999 film), Deep Blue Sea'' (1999), ''The Punisher ...

, entitled ''

'' was released by

Lions Gate Films Lionsgate Films (formerly known as Cinépix Film Properties) is an American film production and film distribution studio, headquartered in Santa Monica and founded in Canada, and is the flagship division of Lionsgate Entertainment. It is the lar ...

and

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

References

External links

* *
''The Punisher'' on Dolph-Ultimate.com

''The Punisher''
at Oz Movies

at Superheroes Lives {{DEFAULTSORT:Punisher (1989 Film), The 1989 action thriller films 1980s vigilante films 1989 films American action thriller films American crime drama films American vigilante films Australian action adventure films Australian crime drama films Australian vigilante films BDSM in films 1980s English-language films Films about child abduction in the United States Films shot in Sydney Films with screenplays by Boaz Yakin Japan in non-Japanese culture New World Pictures films Punisher films Yakuza films American exploitation films Films directed by Mark Goldblatt 1980s American films Live-action films based on Marvel Comics