I just didn't see the point of this tawdry little film. Presumably the backers saw the figures for Bronson's autobiography and fancied a slice of the pie. If so, then they must have been a little disappointed to see that the Director spent their money on something which is too arty to be popular and too exploitative to be arty. And the Daily Star-reading demographic will not be happy to see Tom Hardy's cock flaccidly waving at them from the screen either, not one little bit.
And it's a real tragedy for Hardy because this was his big break and he gives his performance everything he has. But Bronson is such an irretrievable mess that he must feel like he's scored the best goal of his career when his side were already 9-0 down and limping towards relegation. His by-turns over-dramatic and bemused performance is excellent and he huffs magnificently too- notwithstanding the fact that he doesn't age a day between 1974 and the present (as my friend Tony D said, the time-line of the film was almost incomprehensible anyway).
Yes, it's a muddled and befuddled mess of a movie- albeit with some nice authentic settings- with no clear vision of what it wants to say. It is a character study that reveals nothing of the character it studies. This is the real achievement of Tom Hardy, he gives a great performance even though the script gives him nothing to work on. In his head Britain's most violent prisoner is a celebrity; but although infamy and celebrity have become pretty interchangeable terms since the mid-90s and the Loaded-fueled rise of celebrity criminals, this doesn't explain why he would have spent most of the 70s and 80s carving out the reputation that allowed him to gain a bit of space in the tabloids. And there's the rub- this is a film which repeats the same scene over and over. Bronson either starts a fight or takes someone hostage with no intention beyond committing the act itself, this leads to even harsher incarceration and he has to co-operate (presumably for a period of months maybe years) before he gets the opportunity to do it again and repeat the action. Well fuck me, that's interesting isn't it?
The supporting characters in this film are all caricatures the blinded-by-loyalty Mother, the flamboyantly gay bare-fist fighting promoter, the flamboyantly gay Uncle, the flamboyantly gay art teacher, the 'Allo 'Allo comedy Nazi style prison governor, the wimpish prison librarian, brain-dead thuggish prison guards and so on. It may very well be how Bronson sees the world and this may very well be the point of the film but is that really what's going on? Isn't it just a shorthand means of making Bronson seem understandable, maybe even laudable in comparison? If you went into the film with the idea that Bronson is some kind of larger-than-life maverick, standing up to the man and refusing to compromise- then you could take that message from it. But he's actually pitiful and the Director (Nicolas Winding Refn) steers the audience away from that conclusion by putting that sentiment in the mouth of the least sympathetic character on show and having him deliver it with a weedy sneer.
The comparative exaltation of the lead character is no more sharply demonstrated than during his incarceration at Rampton (a secured institution for the mentally ill). The inmates are pretty disgracefully exhibited as comedy figures as a means of rationalising Bronson's attempt to kill the least appealing of them in order to secure his transfer back to prison. The cinematic portrayal of the mentally ill is a tough balancing act to get right when you try really hard since their behaviours are necessarily incongruous and bizarre, but the fact remains that they are ill. If you look at the behaviour of, say, Martini or Scanlon in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest it isn't normal, but it isn't portrayed as a fucking joke either. Bronson has a scene where an inmate defecates into his hand and then slowly, for maximum comic effect smears it on his face. It is designed to raise a repulsed laugh in the audience. Look at him, he's crazy, how funny! Woop woop! It's disgusting. When the inmates are shown enjoying a disco and dancing badly it is designed to make Bronson's choice of attempted murder appear to be the best course of action. What the fuck is this?
And that's the big problem I have with the movie. It is as badly constructed and misconceived a film as I've seen anyway, but it is also morally repellant. Notwithstanding the great lead performance and some pretty good technical stuff, this is a horrid 0/10.
On 21st April (about a month after I first saw this) I boosted it to 1/10 on the basis of the great lead performance.
