Alright, a certain Dawson's Creek fan reminded me that I hadn't posted my thoughts on this film. This might have had something to do with the fact that I left the Q&A fuming at the fact that the host didn't just ask the Questions, he also Answered them too before anyone had a chance to get a word in edgeways. This same guy also introduced Bronson as the "best biopic since Raging Bull, and maybe even better," which is a weight of expectation that'll crush any film.
Bronson is the story of one of those feral balls of rage there seem to be a lot of in these isles. Men overflowing with passion and ambition but with no conduit of release, whose scant vocabularies barely suffice in expressing the emotions eating away at them. So it should come as no surprise when he gets thrown away for armed robbery. The sentence was seven years, but the real Bronson's still in chokey now.
I think the screenwriter might have written this to play as a pretty straightforward crime/biopic, but the director said he did everything he could to work around the screenplay, which apparently wasn't much to write home about. Definitely the right move. All the weirdly comedic moments are what make this movie worth seeing. It still hints at some of the themes in the original draft- like the need to make a name for yourself any way possible (i.e. being printed up in The Sun)- but this is more about the way it's being told than what's being told. Bronson narrates his life via a sort of Freddy Starr-style stage performance, which is a technique that must have been all Refn and that'll divide most of the audience. Those scenes were my favourite parts of the movie, personally. A completely naked Tom Hardy, built like a rhino, painted to look like Janus? Nice. Apparently most of the more out there moments of this flick were pretty heavily influenced by Kenneth Anger's movies (check out
Lucifer Rising on Google Video and find out for yourself).
Tom Hardy did a De Niro in the two or three months between RockNRolla and Bronson and doubled in size. He also spent quite a bit of time going to the prison where Bronson was being held: he was the only visitor the real Bronson had been allowed to see for years (even the director didn't get to see him). All of this resulted in the kind of performance it's hard to tear your eyes away from, wondering who he's going to blap next. The Dumbledore 'tache only makes him even more frightening. You can tell there's a witty, artistic soul buried underneath all that brawn, it's just without the words or artistry to express himself, he's forced to rely on his body instead. It's definitely a career-making role, and the director didn't even want him to begin with. He thought he was an aggressive idiot so he went to Guy Pearce instead, who was more than a little bit concerned as to why Refn went to him to play this loonie.
I dug the '80s electro soundtrack, and the Scott Walker track played at the beginning, and I mostly liked the over-scored style (you know, Ride of the Valkyries playing while Hardy's walking down some tiny hallway), but there were a few techniques that got pretty annoying after awhile. I mean, did there really have to be that many shots of Hardy walking towards the camera? Also, if you're looking for any real insights into the Bronson story, I'd probably look elsewhere. This is more the I'm Not There style of biopic than Milk. But if you want a sometimes amusing, sometimes bemusing British crime film that has fuck all to do with Guy Ritchie, I'd definitely give this a view.
Also, I spent the whole movie sitting next to the guy who played the art teacher without even knowing it!
http://www.bronsonthemovie.com/
