He was born Michael Peterson, adopted the “fighting name” Charles Bronson, is known as Britain’s most famous prisoner and with Bronson director Nicolas Winding Refn has turned him into an entertaining one man show. To that effect, I am sure many will take offense to what is sure to be perceived as the glorification of a notoriously violent criminal and I can’t necessarily argue against that opinion. But I enjoyed it nevertheless.
Introducing the audience to various moments of his life, Tom Hardy plays the titular bald brute as we become witness to his time as a bank robber, violent prisoner, insane asylum patient, bare-knockle brawler, boyfriend, jewelry store thief, prisoner again, hostage taker and inmate artist. It’s a winding road and even when it leads to a moment of artistic expression it always seems to end in anarchy.
Whether he’s watching a fellow inmate defecate in his hand before smearing it on his face or greasing up his naked body in an effort to make it harder for the prison guards to get hold of him, Hardy is a beastly charmer making you laugh, turn your head in disgust and look on in awe. As depicted in Bronson, he’s an artist and a performer, but one thing he wants you to know is he’s not is a murderer. Charles Bronson has spent 34 years in prison since 1974, 30 of them in solitary. He’s never murdered a single person and yet his release date is unknown. While not exactly a by-the-book biopic, you can watch this film and find out why Bronson is where he is.
Who is Charles Bronson and what does he want? What will make him happy? I’ve watched the film three times and there is absolutely no answer to these questions based on the evidence here. Just as he seems to have found some sort of direction in his life he snaps. It’s a character that keeps you on your toes if only because not a single move he makes can be pinned down.
Hardy plays Bronson with precision and panache and had I not just seen him go ape shit inside the four walls of his prison cell he would easily be someone I would want telling stories at my next dinner party. However, this guy is an out of control time bomb, ready to go off at a moment’s notice and without warning or reason. He has me captivated.
Refn’s Pusher trilogy before this was a decent enough three-picture crime tale, but Bronson is a piece of stylized art set to an ’80s synthesizer filled score and accompanied by The Pet Shop Boys’ “It’s a Sin.” It’s unique, yet carries a distinct similarity to Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, even if Bronson doesn’t have any droogs joining him along the way. From start to finish he’s a one man show and once you’ve seen it you wouldn’t have it any other way.
