Bronson DVD
Cast: Tom Hardy, Matt King, James Lance, Amanda Burton
Dir: Nicolas Winding Refn
Rating: 4/5
Over the years Charles Bronson has gained the reputation of one of Britain's most dangerous yet intriguing prisoners.
In 1974, a hot-headed 19 year old named Michael Peterson decided he wanted to make a name for himself and so, with a homemade sawn-off shotgun and a head full of dreams he attempted to rob a post office.
Swiftly apprehended and originally sentenced to 7 years in jail, Peterson has subsequently been behind bars for 34 years, 30 of which have been spent in solitary confinement.
This is not your bog standard biopic picture, a genre of film that we have been so used to seeing of late, as director gives Bronson a more arthouse feel and will be compared to the likes of Clockwork Orange or Chopper.
It's a great performance from Tom Hardy, it's great to see him making a name for himself after the success of RocknRolla, as he takes on Bronson.
And he doesn't portray him in a way that makes the audience feel sorry for him, that's not what this movie is trying to do, he instead paints a picture of a man discovers that violence is his alter ego.
With Hardy director Nicolas Winding Refn just tells Bronson's story and nothing more allowing the audience to make up their own mind about Britain's most notorious prisoner.
It's a brutal and uncompromising movie that's not afraid to show the many aspects of Bronson's personality from artist to very violent criminal. Hardy, who may not have been everyone's first choice for the role deals with these various aspects of Bronson beautifully.
He moves from the violent parts of his character as he takes on the guards time after time to the more vulnerable side of him when he is released from prison, it truly is a great contrast.
There's no doubt that this movie is a little odd as Hardy, as Bronson, narrates as well as appears on a stage as a clown to tell his life story but it's this that keeps you glued to the screen.
While there are moments of humour dotted throughout the movie Bronson is, the whole, quite a dark movies but it's filmmaking of the finest order.
Hardy is simply brilliant and this could be the break through role that he has been looking for as Bronson has cult hit written all over it.
What's great is that Refn hasn't been afraid with to experiment with an alternative way to tell this story and it's the odd narrative structure that really makes it stand out.
Bronson is the Romper Stomper and Chopper for the twenty first century.
Bronson is out on DVD now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Tom Hardy