"I am Charlie Bronson, Britain's most violent prisoner."
Before I say anything about the movie, I'd like to direct you to the Wikipedia page about Charles Bronson. They know more about him than I do. And, just to clarify, this is a different Charles Bronson than the actor. Very different.
Bronson is, obviously, a movie about Charlie Bronson (born Michael Peterson) who has spent most of his life in solitary confinement for being more likely to be a prisoner and punch you in the face than Patrick McGoohan. You know how the internet thinks Chuck Norris is a superhero who cannot be stopped? I'm pretty sure Charlie Bronson could kill Chuck Norris just by thinking about it.
Also, he totally looks like an old timey boxer. He should be calling people rough customers and saying he's going to give them what-for. ...Actually, he is a rough customer and does, in fact, give lots of people what-for.
Yes, this is a real guy and yes, I do feel kinda weird (insensitive?) making light of his situation and violent ways but for some reason I can't help it. And the movie, at least at first, sort of does the same thing.
The first half hour or so of Bronson very much appeals to me stylistically. The art direction is fantastic, they intercut scenes of Charlie talking directly to the camera and fantasy scenes of Charlie onstage in a fancy theater putting on a show about himself for hoity toity people with the (for lack of a better word) realistic scenes that tell his story. It was fascinating and I just loved it.
Around the point they started focusing on Charlie's life outside of prison, the movie sort of fell apart for me. It was still full of fantastic art direction but the narrating and theater scenes pretty much disappeared completely and it became a much more straightforward movie, which I didn't like as much. If they had kept the tone from the beginning through the whole film I would have liked it just that much more. I'd be ranting about needing to own a copy right now if they'd done it that way.
Overall, though, it was still brilliant and Tom Hardy is fantastic.
End of line.
-Sally
2 comments:
Hey, I actually saw this film. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the right mood for it when I popped it in, and wasn't prepared for what it offered. It made me think of Clockwork Orange at one point.
Can't say whether I liked it or not. I just didn't know what to make of it.
But I've watched movies a second time that I first thought were OK, and then for some reason loved them. The real question here is, why watch a movie a second time if you don't like the first time around? No idea.
It's funny that it reminded you of Clockwork Orange; I tracked down the trailer on Youtube and one of the reviewer quotes they showed called it a next-generation Clockwork Orange or some nonsense like that. Bronson was recommended to me by a friend and if he had compared it to A Clockwork Orange, I wouldn't have watched it because I hate that movie.
I don't know what it is that compels one to rewatch a movie when they didn't like it the first time around, but I know I've done it too. (In fact, I've seen A Clockwork Orange three times, but I never like it any better.)
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