Bronson (2008)

Bronson, based on a true story and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, is a brutal, intelligent, stylish, and completely insane movie about a man who, in his own words, wants to "make a name for himself." That man is Michael Peterson, or Charles Bronson, as he is renamed by the fighting promoter who tells him he needs a movie star's name. He is known as Britain's most violent (and therefore most famous) prisoner. He is very proud of that title.

Bronson is played by Tom Hardy, who gives one of the most fearless performances I have ever seen. I could see him being nominated for an Oscar if the Academy weren't afraid of films like this. He makes his character a sight to behold. He is reckless and unyielding in his fury, and reserved and dry in his humor. There are scenes in which he delivers narration to the camera, with darkness surrounding him, and there are scenes of him wreaking havoc in prison, and that pretty much makes up the film. It's extraordinary.

The film makes no attempt to explain Bronson's rage; it simply exists because that's how he is wired, and we never question that. Nor do we hope for his death or recovery. This is simply a character study on a real man who wanted to be famously violent, or violently famous.

Bronson is filmed in a semi-theatrical non-realist fashion, particularly in the narration scenes. Sometimes Bronson appears on a stage in various types of makeup to explain part of his story; maybe we are getting some insight into how his brain perceives what happens to him. I don't think he is under any delusions, though. He knows what he is doing. I think everything just seems a bit more colorful inside his head.

When he informs us he wants to make a name for himself, I can't help thinking that's what both his life and this film are all about. There is a point in the film where, after he has taken a guard hostage, his prison warden asks him what he wants. He doesn't have an answer. At the end of the film we see him bow before the thunderous applause of an appreciative audience. This is what he has wanted all his life.

This film is sometimes shocking and sometimes violent, and it works because there is a character at the center of it, and, although he is a reprehensible human being, we kind of understand him and we kind of pity him. His violence is not glorified; it is shown in an honest light, and it makes us sad that he feels it is necessary.

Note: 2009 U.S. release