Still, Hymes admits he was stunned when Jane came bursting through the wall. “I’ve never seen anyone go through a wall like that. There were a few anxious moments, looking in the monitor. But Thomas has outstanding reflexes and natural instincts, and did a great job of protecting himself. I was very relieved to see that he was okay, that he’d been acting.”
The Punisher was shot in 52 days, an unusually brisk pace for a film with a number of action sequences. Having been on set for many of his films, including Armageddon, The Rock and Con Air, Hensleigh came to his feature directorial debut with a good deal of prior experience. In Hurd’s estimation, “Jonathan’s perspective as a writer has always been a director’s perspective. He sees everything from not only the actor’s perspective but from a visual perspective, and that’s a very uncommon combination -- and it's essential to the best filmmaking in the genre.”
Jane agrees, adding, “Jonathan is a great collaborator and he allowed me to bring something that’s uniquely mine to the part. He’s a storyteller, and his goal is to tell the story in the best way possible.”
Working with Hensleigh to cut that story together was editor Steven Kemper, whose credits include Mission Impossible II and Face/Off. Hensleigh knew Kemper had the ability to keep the action moving, but the editor revealed a deep affinity for drama in the film’s quieter moments. “Steven’s known for his action sequences, but in fact he’s wonderful with dialogue and emotional scenes,” Hensleigh affirms. “He did a fantastic job.”
With this latest Marvel hero poised to become a big screen star, Avi Arad feels confident that fans of the comic book will be happy with The Punisher. Says the producer, “The most important thing is to stay true to the character. Jonathan Hensleigh not only embraced the book, he enhanced it. This was a unique opportunity for us to do something realistic, gritty, hard. We think The Punisher nails it.”
Frank Castle is no longer the vigilante of 1974; The Punisher speaks to the anxieties of a different era. “I think he’s a character of the times we live in. I think that questions of justice and the morality of acts of revenge or retribution are certainly on people’s minds these days,” Hensleigh reflects. “As a filmmaker, I personally don’t take a stand one way or another. But I was very watchful towards setting rules for the character, which the comic book does a good job of doing. If a person seeks a life of vengeance, if you will, on behalf of society, then he'd better have some hard, fast rules. Castle's are that he will only go after those individuals who he absolutely knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt -- or who society has judged, beyond a shadow of a doubt – have committed heinous acts. He's not wanton in his vengeance.”
Jane takes up the theme. “What Frank Castle discovers is that people can rise above their own individual wants and needs and strive for a higher purpose. You can make a difference by dedicating yourself, utterly, to what you believe is right, without expecting any reward. I think that's where Frank comes to, and I think that's what makes him ‘The Punisher.’"
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