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?

"This movie have no taste",because whenever you finished watching,it will leave a bad taste in your mouth,what a fricking display of acting from Tom Hardy no let me change that to,i can't believe he was acting,if this does not look real to anyone who've seen it they don't know what acting is,based on the true story of Michael Peterson [Tom Hardy]Britain's most violent prisoner,who in 1974 decided he wanted to be famous,so with a homemade sawn-off shotgun he decided rob the post office,who was quickly apprehended and sentenced to seven years in jail, this guy spent 34 years in jail of which 30 was spent in solitary confinement,not even the queen knew what to do with him,he was causing the tax-payers to much,but the light here is [if i can turn it on to]Nicolas Winding Refn the director,he's gotten So Much out of T.Hardy the way the actual person walks the way he speak and the look he gives you, is stunning to watch and very scary,this movie is also Very Bloody i don't know if i would say hard to watch,because i could not take my eyes of the screen for one minute, i was just so mesmerize by his performance i didn't even see the blood.plus there is full nudity of [T.Hardy] for some who don't like that stuff,the way this movie was shot with the ruff grain really makes it feel authentic for that time-period of 1974 most was in prison too, 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio. 1080p High Definition 1.851 runtime 93 minutes. I Give This To N. W. Refn & T Hardy Putting It Mildly...

I did not know much about Michael Peterson aka Charles Bronson's lifestory or prison rooftop protests at Strangeways until I watched Tom Hardy's excellent carbon-copy rendition of this aggressively amusing character in the film. I remembered in retrospect there being something on the news about the rooftop protests that I would not have recollected without watching this movie; nor would I have known and understood what it was like for a person who was both romantically-inclined and poor to rob a Post Office at gunpoint to have passed on him the gruelling sentence he is enduring today; also later in the movie he does it again when trying to supply his desired fiance with a wedding-ring(?) among other things from a jewellers. He is a notorious character especially for one who read about him in the news and reads his books about life inside, but this film paints him not as a villain, but as he truly is-an anti-hero who has fallen foul of the system and consequently bitten off more than he can chew in the form of prison terms. Both witty and violent, this film makes for a thrilling discovery in a surreal moving-picture artform that keeps you on the edge of your seat like at a boxing-match wanting more of the same excitement it delivers throughout. A lot of good movies are sold cheaply on the market now, and this is one of them, so buy it while it remains at a low price because you'll still want to see it if it increases in value as a future classic and would be missing a good movie if you didn't, so don't be put off whatever price it is. Hazel O'Connor's 'Breaking Glass' was a case in point. I had to pay quite a lot for a copy from Amazon, even though that is an obscurity now. Some of my favourite scenes included the clown sequence, the dogfight and the artroom bust-up. The latter was hilarious, done only as it could be by Tom Hardy's (of 'Stuart' fame) trademark madness. The clown was enough to terrify the living daylights out me with its unnerving schizophrenic disposition, as was the nurse/prisoner dual-personality act he performed at one point. A memorable movie for its excellent performances, characterisatiion and surreal story progress. It is the first of its kind, in my opinion, to resemble 'A Clockwork Orange' for humour, pathos and fantasy so successfully.

Het blijft een klassieker, Tom hardy is en blijft een legendarische acteur

Ce film est parfait de bout en bout, il est magistralement interprété par Tom Hardy qui offre ici sa plus belle prestation, la photo comme dans tous les films de Refn est splendide et chaque plan est d'une beauté absolue. La bande son est très soigné également et la musique classique colle parfaitement aux scènes, ce qui nous rapproche des meilleurs films de Kubrick. Je ne saurais que trop recommandé ce film qui fait parti de mes 5 films préférés du 21ème siècle et si vous souhaitez visionner une autre oeuvre de Refn après avoir été bluffé par Bronson, je vous recommande le très controversé " Only God Forgives " avec le tout aussi talentueux Ryan Golsling que personnellement j'ai autant adoré que celui-ci. Bon visionnage !

Tom Hardy outstanding performance in this role. For me it's truly his best work to date.