Bronson (film)
Encyclopedia
Bronson is a 2008 British fictionalised biographical crime film
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...

 directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Tom Hardy
Tom Hardy
Edward Thomas "Tom" Hardy is an English actor. He is best known for playing the title character in the 2008 British film Bronson, the character of Eames in Inception, and the villain Praetor Shinzon in Star Trek Nemesis...

. The film follows the life of notorious prisoner Michael Gordon Peterson
Charles Bronson (prisoner)
Charles Bronson is a Welsh criminal often referred to in the British press as the "most violent prisoner in Britain"....

, who was re-named Charles Bronson by his fight promoter. Born into a respectable middle class family, Peterson would nevertheless become one of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

's most dangerous criminals, and is known for having spent almost his entire adult life in solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...

. Bronson is narrated with humour, blurring the line between comedy and horror.

Plot

The film begins with Bronson introducing himself to the camera, stating he always wanted to be famous. He cannot sing, he cannot act, and so he shows the calling he found: the film cuts to a naked Bronson fighting several prison guards in a cage. The film then presents several assorted points from his life, intercut with Bronson on stage before an audience in several stages of performance make-up, and speaking directly to camera while seemingly behind bars.

Michael Peterson is shown as a baby, and then as a young boy involved in fights with students and a teacher at school using a desk as a weapon. He had his first job at a chip shop, where he committed his first crime, stealing money from the cash register and giving some of the money and a kiss to a young woman who was working there. He then goes on to marry the woman, Irene, and has a baby with her.

Peterson goes to jail after robbing a post office and getting away with a small amount of cash. Peterson thrives in prison, comparing it to a hotel room, and every night he displays violent behavior towards the guards, which causes the other inmates to treat him like a star. The authorities send him to a series of different prisons in hope that one of them will be able to handle him, but nothing seems to help. Eventually he is sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he is injected with high doses of sedative drugs
Sedative
A sedative or tranquilizer is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or excitement....

 every time he tries to start a fight. A man approaches Peterson while he is being subdued with drugs and seems to be sympathetic to Peterson. This soon changes as the man is revealed to be a pedophile and suggest that he and Peterson should go rape a nine-year old girl. The furious Peterson is shown expressing aggressive hate towards the man, but is unable to do anything against him. In an attempt to prove his sanity and be sent back to prison he finally tries to strangle the pedophile after pretending to be calm for several days.
Because of this he is sent to the high-security psychiatric hospital, Broadmoor
Broadmoor Hospital
Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton...

, where he starts a large-scale riot. News footage from the actual event shows Peterson up on the roof, thus being branded "Her Majesty's most expensive prisoner." He is then certified sane and therefore released into the general population.

While on parole and living with his uncle in Luton
Luton
Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....

, he becomes involved in bareknuckle boxing and changes his name to Charles "Charlie" Bronson, after the famous actor
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...

. This career ends quickly after he falls in love with a woman, steals an engagement ring, proposes to her and is arrested because of theft. He was out of prison for only 69 days.

Back in prison, he is once again involved in several fights with guards, thus extending his sentence. The character of his violent outbursts starts to become more sophisticated. At one event he holds the prison librarian hostage before stripping naked and greasing himself up to fight riot officers. One of the prison officers says: "If you continues this, you will die here." He becomes interested in art, which the prison officials think is a good way to develop his interacting skills with other human beings. Eventually this project gets out of hand when Bronson holds his art teacher hostage, ties him to a pole, puts an apple in his mouth, and paints the hostage's face.

The film closes by telling us that Charles Bronson has not been granted a release date, and he is seen badly beaten, his chin torn, groaning, in what is effectively a cage coffin in the centre of a large, dark room.

Cast

  • Tom Hardy
    Tom Hardy
    Edward Thomas "Tom" Hardy is an English actor. He is best known for playing the title character in the 2008 British film Bronson, the character of Eames in Inception, and the villain Praetor Shinzon in Star Trek Nemesis...

     as Michael Peterson a.k.a. Charles Bronson
    Charles Bronson (prisoner)
    Charles Bronson is a Welsh criminal often referred to in the British press as the "most violent prisoner in Britain"....

  • Matt King
    Matt King (comedian)
    Matt King is an English actor, writer of BBC sitcom Whites and comedian. He is known for his role as self-absorbed musician Super Hans in the British sitcom Peep Show....

     as Paul Daniels
  • James Lance
    James Lance
    James Lance is a British actor who is best known for his appearances in a number of British comedy series. James Lance attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School...

     as Phil Danielson
  • Amanda Burton
    Amanda Burton
    Amanda Burton is an award-winning actress from Northern Ireland. Burton is best known for her high-profile television roles as Karen Fisher in Waterloo Road , Sam Ryan in the BBC crime drama series Silent Witness, Clare Blake in The Commander, Beth Glover in Peak Practice, and Heather Black in the...

     as Mum
  • Juliet Oldfield as Alison
  • Hugh Ross as Uncle Jack
  • Edward Bennett-Coles as Brian
  • Kelly Adams
    Kelly Adams
    Kelly Adams is an English actress.A pupil of North Kesteven School in North Hykeham, Adams trained at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in Wood Green, London....

     as Irene
  • Katy Barker as Julie
  • Richard Jones as a lunatic
  • William Darke as Michael Peterson, age 13
  • Andrew Forbes as Joe Peterson, Dad
  • Tom Read as Prison Officer 1
  • Jonathan Phillips
    Jonathan Phillips
    Jonathan Phillips is an English actor, best known for his portrayal of 2nd Officer Charles Lightoller in the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic.He also appeared in an episode of Midsomer Murders entitled Country Matters....

     as The Prison Governor

Production

For his role in the movie, Hardy met the real life Charles Bronson in prison. The movie was filmed in and around the St. Ann's, Sherwood, Worksop and Welbeck Abbey
Welbeck Abbey
Welbeck Abbey near Clumber Park in North Nottinghamshire was the principal abbey of the Premonstratensian order in England and later the principal residence of the Dukes of Portland.-Monastic period:...

 areas of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. The post office shown at the beginning of the film is located in Lostwithiel
Lostwithiel
Lostwithiel is a civil parish and small town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom at the head of the estuary of the River Fowey. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,739...

, Cornwall.

Reception

As of May 2011, Bronson has received an aggregate rating of 77% on film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The film had a major worldwide release on October 9, 2009 and has grossed $2,260,712 from foreign markets.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK