Bronson (Widescreen Edition)

Bronson was one of my favorite if not my favorite film from last year so it was an easy purchase to make this one of the first Blu-Rays I owned that I wasn't re-purchasing from DVD. Like its protagonist Bronson isn't an easy film to explain. On one hand you can say its a biopic of Michael Peterson, a british prisoner who has rechristend himself in his fighting name of Charles Bronson and made a name for himself by causing riots and taking hostages so many times He's now serving a life sentence in his own prison to protect guards and other convicts from him. The movie isn't so simple though taking what I call a more gonzo approach to the idea of a biopic of a man who's so off kilter a personality. The best critics and even director Nicolas Winding Refn admit that the film is operating on different levels. The normal biopic features Peterson narrating his life, the story of young man who leads an existence engaging in fights at an early age until at nineteen He decides to rob a post office. He's sentenced to seven years in prison and once in decides to make the most of it engaing in fights and other violence. Then theres another angle as Bronson puts on a suit, paints his face and narrates his life story to a crowd, telling jokes and basically as He says from his opening becoming famous through his actions as a prisoner. This is more the surreal aspect of the film exploring a duality between the personality and the person I found interesting. Even the lifestory reenactments seem to use a technique. The film opens on a vicious fight with a caged Bronson squaring off against six guards scored to a normal song that does provide the feeling of general disturbance of the man. Certain scenes want to show this reality while the movie switches soundtracks to a more classical score when Bronson is retelling his life becoming more of the showman He wants to be. We go from rock and roll to Wagner at the drop of a hat to emphasize a more larger than life quality to the story. Refn's an interesting director who totatlly seems to have changed his direction from his films like the Pusher series which were more realistic compared to this. This change of tone and style definitely makes him a filmmaker I'm more interested in seeing after this film but I'll be remiss if I didn't mention Tom Hardy's performance. The film has become mainly recognized for Hardy's work reminiscent to Eric Bana as Mark Brandon Read in Chopper. Unlike Bana who became known outside of Australia because of Chopper though, Hardy's been working for nearly ten years in films like Black Hawk Down and Layer Cake. He's mostly been a character actor in small roles gaining some leads in other films. After this though I can definitely see this changing as He totally owns his role as Bronson. He bulked up considerably shaved his head, but more than that He has an almost animal intensity in the performance. He's funny, He's brash but at the end you do in a way see the wounded animal existing underneath the persona- again something reminiscent of Bana's performance in Bronson. I enjoyed Refn's direction but I can definitely recommend the film from the performance of the lead actor. The film is a biopic of an interesting person that thankfully doesn't glorify the man. There is a free Bronson campaign but it never seems to argue for this idea. In the end its a entertaining film with great direction and an amazing performance. Like I said this is one of the first Blus I purchased so I'm not as good at others at judging picture and the like. I've heard some reviews that have said the pictures good but not great but to me the picture popped with an amazing ammount of sharpness and detail while still retaining a film like appearance. The sound though is spectacularly good benefiting the dialogue and music selection. Magnolia thankfully isn't a company that skimps on extras for either DVD or Blu-Ray and there is a great selection of features including a making of that includes some of Bronson's family, select interviews with Refn, Hardy and actor Matt King. Theres also a feature on training Tom Hardy as well as behind the scenes footage and everything is rounded out with recorded monologues from Charles Bronson himself. The last feature should be something interesting like interviews with Mark Read were on Chopper, but truthfully asides from the rambling nature the audio isn't very good. Thats a good ammount of material rounding out an excellent disc. Like I said I loved the film and would definitely recommend the Blu Ray for fans of the movie. However you can see the movie though its a definite recommendation from me.

Tom Hardy's acting was excellent!

Who ever delivered followed my request of putting it in the mail box instead of carelessly throwing it on the porch to bake in the sun and be drenched with rain, thank you very much. Amazing movie as always and Tom is the best of course which is why I wanted this in actual physical form for my collection. Also came in a timely fashion and in reasonable shape. I do however feel that I continue to pay for (NEW) Blu-rays and get used instead. I get tired of taking plastic off and scratches all over the case, damage to case, movie not in place which of course=during shipping and handling that I pay $7 for please ship and handle better. Maybe start shipping in small boxes instead of envelopes. And a long with all this tons and tons and tons of fingerprints all over inside and out of the case along with movie too. I pay a lot for these plastic discs it would be great to get better quality. Being a collector certain things drive us crazy about damage and it's hard enough to even find what we are looking for these days.

It wasn't love at first sight. The adoration has grown over the years. Now I am a full-fledged Tom Hardy fanatic (at the age of 73!). It wasn't until THE DROP that I realized what an incredible talent this man is. Mesmerized by his spot-on performance of a bartender in a Brooklyn bar. After watching it I wiki-ed Mr. Hardy. Shock! He isn't an American actor, he's British! As I scrolled down and saw his film history I almost fell off my chair. I had seen many of his previous films. Why had I not remembered him? Because he morphed into every character he played so perfectly that he was different with each film. Different accents, different appearance, same talent. I heard he was playing BOTH Kray twins in the upcoming film, Legend. Watched the trailers and was left speechless. The week I moved to London was the week the Krays went to prison! The newspapers wrote about them for months. As the decades have passed, I forgot about them. Until now. The film was supposed to open in Sept. but was pushed back to November. Will be in the audience the day it opens here in NYC, I can assure you. In the meantime I have bought every book available on amazon that deals with the Kray twins and their lives. All of them come from London so I have had to wait a while to get them. All old paperbacks from the 70s, 80s and 90s. None of the books tell the same story. Ronnie, Reggie and Charlie Kray all wrote books about their life of crime but they don't jibe with what other people have written. I am curious about how certain aspects of their true lives are going to be handled in the film. I am fairly sure a lot is going to be glossed over. Now we get to the film Bronson. I watched the trailers and could not bring myself to watch it because of the incredible violence. Like the Krays, Mr. Bronson was imprisoned long ago. He even knew the twins in prison and wrote a book about it. That one I haven't read. Last night I made myself watch the film. As the end credits rolled I was pretty much in shock at what I had just watched. Not so much the sad, tragic, violent life that Mr. Bronson has led, but Tom Hardy's beyond-incredible performance. Saying it was astounding isn't giving him full justice. I have been going to movies for 65 years, and have never seen anything like it. And I have seen some incredible actors over the years. He should have gotten the Oscar for his performance. It certainly isn't a warm-and-fuzzy, feel-good film, for sure. You don't leave the cinema smiling, although you might be singing "It's A Sin" by the Pet Shop Boys. The soundtrack is quite lovely with Wagner and other opera songs intertwined with scenes of blood and violence. How an actor can sustain the fever pitch Mr. Hardy did for an hour-and-a-half is exhausting for the viewer. What must he have felt like making it? Bruises, cuts, exhaustion? All in a days work, I'm sure. Not. Tom Hardy is able to pull off all his roles to perfection because he has an everyman's face. He isn't Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt. He is ruggedly handsome in a non-threatening way. His smile disarms you. When he smiles in Bronson (and he smiles a lot) you want to break him out of prison, bring him home and take care of him. Every frame is a gem. I do not anticipate seeing a performance on film or on-stage in my lifetime that will come anything close to his Bronson. Famous actors who watched it must have marveled at his stamina and realized they could not have pulled it off themselves. The film is electrifying and horrifying at the same time. Tom Hardy is THE actor for the 21st Century. Cannot wait for his future films. As an aside, am I the only person who thinks he and Axl Rose (Guns n' Roses) look like twins?

i,v been a fan of tom hardy ever since i saw him in a 4 part episode called 'the take'. then i saw him in inception and many others. i must say thAT he has such a way with roles in all his projects that he makes them memorable. him as 'bronson' was so unbelievable!!! wow what a performance. at 1st i didnt relize it was tom hardy under all that muscle and madness. this movie is not for evryone though. if u can take it, u shuld see it, or own it. this movie is full of dark humor, art, madness, a gr8 score, and oh yes...more madness. not to mention the nudity that tom had 2 do. takes guts to do that in more then %50 of the film. this role must hav been dreadful to go through, but tom being the actor he is, he dives head first totally commited to his characters. he literally jumps out at u like a cartoon character, i couldnt help but laugh half the time. gr8 performance tom, cant wait to see u as bane and mad max next. tom hardy has really become my fav actor who's career i'll be following from now on!!

But then again, this movie is kind of weird so I think that's okay. In fact, I'm probably going to use that phrase a lot in this review since my revelations about this film have all come over me with a strange air of `weirdness'. This may sound weird, but when `Bronson' ended I instantly brought to mind `American Splendor'. I know, they are SOOOO different, but the one thing they have in common is the one thing that makes them both so amazing; they are odd. I guess I should elaborate. They are odd takes on a generic genre. All too often the biopic (which happens to be one of my favorite film genres) tends to become repetitive. The same general plot outline is used in the storytelling, and unless the subject is interesting enough on their own and the performances are beyond stellar, they can all begin to run together. `American Splendor' was one of those refreshing films that took be by surprise because it understood how to do something unique and different with the genre. `Bronson' does that too. It breaks away from the norm and delivers something that is odd. Sure, that oddness may deter some and it isn't without detractors, but the way that the film uses comedic breaks and fantastical interludes and blistering techno savvy music makes `Bronson' stick out like a sore thumb. I gobbled it up. This may sound weird, but Tom Hardy is hot. Ok, so that isn't weird par-say; but it is weird coming from me. What I mean by that is that the man is a marvel of physical appearance. The fact that he is naked often in this film (his battle outfit of choice) doesn't hurt either. Apparently, if I do 2,500 push ups a day for five weeks I can look like him too. I started yesterday. Breaking away from my obsession with his body (not an `I want to take him to bed obsession' but an `I wish I looked like him' obsession), the performance he delivers is FLAWLESS. It's funny because I just got done raving Colin Firth for his marvelous performance in `A Single Man' (toting it as the best of last year) and I'm almost tempted to say that Hardy was better. The performances are so different, yet they are both so complex. The way that Hardy taps into the chaotic drive that lays springloaded in the back of Bronson's mind is intoxicating, and the way that he plays to the strengths of the oddness of the script is just spot on. He really understands how to layer this character in all the right ways, creating multiple personalities that don't feel dislocated but at the same time never feel completely coherent. It is also a vanity free performance (I mean, he looks amazing but there is not an ounce of validation there), a fearless one, and I always commend the actor who is willing to `go there'. Tom Hardy goes there, and then some. This may sound weird, but the fact that not all of this is true only makes this film all the more amazing. I know that biopics get lamblasted at times for not staying true to reality, but the fact that Bronson's reality is one steeped in the fascination with fame makes the fabrication of his world all the more pertinent to understanding who he really is. He is a celebrity, but not the usual kind. He is the self imagined kind, and so making his world even more macabre helps us get inside his head and relish every moment of it. If you want something out of the norm that will touch you unexpectedly and stay with you longer than most other films, grab hold of `Bronson' and don't let it go!

Great movie, quality, awesome actor, Tom Harder ❤️❤️❤️

I wasn't sure what to expect, but this film is one of Nicholas Winding Refn's lighter efforts. There is humor in almost every scene, and Bronson, despite his violent tendencies, is presented as a guy who just wants to make light of his situation. Tom Hardy buffed up for the role, and his insight into the man is as good as it gets. He knows they expect the worst from him, so he'll strip naked, cover himself in grease, and create a scene, so the guards can't get a grip on him. Bronson never killed anyone, and, despite a botched robbery in his youth, can't be accused of anything but bi-polar stress. The mental institutions didn't want to deal with him, so he went back in the prison system. While paroled, he looked confused, and eventually did something stupid that put him back in prison. It's actually a simple story about a misunderstood person. The facts may have been sugar-coated, and I admit I don't really know the man, but Bronson, as presented in this film, it almost adorable. Tom Hardy, easily one of our finest actors, gives 100% into this guy, and I was completely taken in. The cunning and behavior were given purpose, and his humanity is left intact. In extras, Hardy had met with Bronson, and said he'd present an honest character. Regardless of any factual accuracy, Refn's film is actually delightful and intelligent, maybe as seen through the eyes of Bronson, as he sees himself. Despite how others watch this film, it's not the downer you might expect. A very courageous, varied and unflinching performance from Tom Hardy. I'm VERY impressed.