Bronson

BRONSON (18)

D: Nicolas Winding Refn

Vertigo (Rupert Preston & Danny Hansford)

UK 🇬🇧 2008

92 mins

Biopic/Crime

W: Norman Brock & Nicolas Winding Refn

DP: Larry Smith

Ed: Mat Newman

Mus: Johnny Jewel

Tom Hardy (Michael Gordon Peterson / Charles Bronson), Matt King (Paul Daniels), James Lance (Phil Danielson), Kelly Adams (Irene Peterson)

So many people have recommended this to me and after a long procrastination I finally got around to watching it. Sure, it's a disturbing movie but what disturbs me more is Britain's entire perspective on criminals, from The Kray Twins to Charles Bronson. Bronson was a self-deluded lunatic, hungry for fame and notoriety as England's most feared prisoner- he's completely undeserving of such fame and this biopic completely contradicts that.

There's no denying that Tom Hardy delivers an excellent performance as Charles Bronson/Michael Peterson but the movie itself glamourises a monstrous thug and nothing more, there's no exploration of his character and it kind of plays out like a ripoff of A Clockwork Orange intersected with Bob Fosse style theatrical montages showing Bronson as a "showman" and direct-to-camera monologues which failed to engage me and just made me think that the man completely self obsessed and was up his own arse with his exceptionally high opinions of himself.

This movie had so much potential and could have shed some light on what brings out the violent instincts of the criminal mind or dangerous sociopaths, instead it glorifies the man at every turn. He's not a showman, an actor, a stand up comedian or a superstar. The man's a complete animal.

I'll probably have a lot of people saying that I may have missed the point of the movie, but I simply didn't enjoy it at all and thought it was nothing but shameless exploitation, despite the excellence of Tom Hardy's performance.

5/10