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The Case for Remaking The Punisher
May. 18th, 2015 02:59 pmHaving looked at two quintessential heroes, let's take a look at the anti-hero.
The Punisher, formerly Frank Castle, kills bad guys. That's all he does. That's all he wants to do. Saving innocent bystanders may be a side effect or something he does along the way. Primarily, though, shoots bad people in the face. His methodology involves a lot of barging into rooms and spraying areas with bullets.
In the same universe, radiation causes super powers. Super serums cause super powers with no ill effects. And, a single gene can be responsible for a wide variety of powers or physical non-conformities, none of which appear to have any rhyme or reason to their manifestation. I can suspend disbelief on all of that.
You want me to take it as a given that The Punisher only kills bad people and I must exclaim of the presence of feces produced by male bovines while mid-copulation.
No. That's a question that has to be asked. So, the Punisher must be captured, arrested, and put on trial.
There's no chance of even the best actors claiming, with a straight face, that Frank Castle (officially, though he'll want to be called Punisher) didn't kill a lot of people. So, Punisher will make the self-defense case.
His argument will go as follows. An abused spouse or child can be acquitted of murder on the basis that the abuse constitutes a constant state of clear and present danger. The people he killed were all such bad people that each of them represented a constant state of clear and present danger to the general populace.
Unbeknownst to The Punisher, his lawyer will set the stage for a potential insanity defense, claiming Frank Castle incapable of understanding the consequences of his actions.
This will make the trial both story and staging.
The story will go over Frank Castle's backstory, the loss of his wife and children to mafia retaliation, his turn from police officer to vigilante and, of course, his kills.
Many of his kills will be easy to justify, from a visceral sense. Hit men, high to mid level drug dealers, extortionists, all that showed no sign of repentance or stopping or getting caught any time soon.
But, then there are the just-released, the ones that Punisher felt hadn't been punished enough or were likely to go back to old ways. That they just all look dangerous wouldn't hurt his case.
Speaking of those that just look dangerous, maybe it's the case that family and friends don't want to think poorly of lost loved ones that, despite a lack of currently available evidence, really were the violent criminals that The Punisher thought they were.
The innocent bystanders, the ones that couldn't possibly have done anything wrong, those will be the difficult ones.
Is The Punisher right that they were killed by bad guys and made to look like they were caught in his crossfire? Is it even possible that the innocents killed by Punisher are an acceptable price for the results of his work? Is it the case that The Punisher's desire to kill has divorced him from the reality of who is or is not guilty?
One thing we know is that some people support The Punisher so much that they'll applaud simply the statement of his body-count.
When it's time for the jury to deliberate, roll the credits. It's up to the audience to consider what's presented.
The Punisher, formerly Frank Castle, kills bad guys. That's all he does. That's all he wants to do. Saving innocent bystanders may be a side effect or something he does along the way. Primarily, though, shoots bad people in the face. His methodology involves a lot of barging into rooms and spraying areas with bullets.
In the same universe, radiation causes super powers. Super serums cause super powers with no ill effects. And, a single gene can be responsible for a wide variety of powers or physical non-conformities, none of which appear to have any rhyme or reason to their manifestation. I can suspend disbelief on all of that.
You want me to take it as a given that The Punisher only kills bad people and I must exclaim of the presence of feces produced by male bovines while mid-copulation.
No. That's a question that has to be asked. So, the Punisher must be captured, arrested, and put on trial.
There's no chance of even the best actors claiming, with a straight face, that Frank Castle (officially, though he'll want to be called Punisher) didn't kill a lot of people. So, Punisher will make the self-defense case.
His argument will go as follows. An abused spouse or child can be acquitted of murder on the basis that the abuse constitutes a constant state of clear and present danger. The people he killed were all such bad people that each of them represented a constant state of clear and present danger to the general populace.
Unbeknownst to The Punisher, his lawyer will set the stage for a potential insanity defense, claiming Frank Castle incapable of understanding the consequences of his actions.
This will make the trial both story and staging.
The story will go over Frank Castle's backstory, the loss of his wife and children to mafia retaliation, his turn from police officer to vigilante and, of course, his kills.
Many of his kills will be easy to justify, from a visceral sense. Hit men, high to mid level drug dealers, extortionists, all that showed no sign of repentance or stopping or getting caught any time soon.
But, then there are the just-released, the ones that Punisher felt hadn't been punished enough or were likely to go back to old ways. That they just all look dangerous wouldn't hurt his case.
Speaking of those that just look dangerous, maybe it's the case that family and friends don't want to think poorly of lost loved ones that, despite a lack of currently available evidence, really were the violent criminals that The Punisher thought they were.
The innocent bystanders, the ones that couldn't possibly have done anything wrong, those will be the difficult ones.
Is The Punisher right that they were killed by bad guys and made to look like they were caught in his crossfire? Is it even possible that the innocents killed by Punisher are an acceptable price for the results of his work? Is it the case that The Punisher's desire to kill has divorced him from the reality of who is or is not guilty?
One thing we know is that some people support The Punisher so much that they'll applaud simply the statement of his body-count.
When it's time for the jury to deliberate, roll the credits. It's up to the audience to consider what's presented.
