Dolph Lundgren Recalls His Badass 1989 Marvel Film THE PUNISHER

In 1989 Dolph Lundgren played Frank Castle in one of the first Marvel movies, The Punisher. This was actually a pretty badass film, but it’s also one of those movies that many people have seemed to have forgotten about. It’s also a movie the younger generation doesn’t know even exists.

In the film, Frank Castle’s story begins as a respected police officer dedicated to eradicating the Mafia's influence, “that is, until the mob responds with a lethal car bomb that decimates Castle's family. Now, filled with rage and presumed dead from the horrific explosion, Castle takes to the city's underground sewer tunnels to bring his own brutal brand of vigilante justice to the streets and wreak vengeance on those who killed his family.”

During a recent interview with Film School Rejects, Lundgren talked about starring in this movie and what it was like to make a comic book movie like this back in the day. He began, saying:

“I wasn’t aware of the Marvel Universe then. I wasn’t a big comic book fan, and in those days, it was kind of shady to play a comic book character. It was risky. Now, obviously, once you win the Academy Award, the next thing you play is a Marvel character. That’s just how it goes these days.”

When talking about his experience making the movie, he said:

“I thought it was a fun film to work on. We shot in Australia, and Louis Gossett Jr. was in it. He was great, and we had really good stunt people, and a lot of the guys were from Mad Max: The Road Warrior. I enjoyed it for sure.”

Lundgren went on to talk about the original script for the film by Robert Mark Kamen, and recalled how it included the horrific event of Castle’s family being brutally murdered. The movie didn’t include that in the film after the script was rewritten by Boaz Yakin. But, the actor used what he read in the original script to help drive him as he shot the movie. He said:

“In the original script, there’s a long sequence in the beginning with the family getting killed. You see Frank Castle as a cop and as a happy family man. Then the family is done in, and he becomes the Punisher. That whole section was cut out by New World Pictures. They were going under at the time when the film was produced. They took the old section out, and I think there’s a little piece of flashback in it now. Yeah, there was a lot more to it than what ended up in the picture.”

He went on to talk about bringing his character to life and what he was going for, saying:

“If you play a tough guy too tough, people just – yeah, you can watch it, but to me, I like characters like the lead from Gladiator. Or, if you take The Godfather series, you know their inner life, and that makes you understand the violence.

“At the time, I didn’t have that much experience. I’d done Rocky. I worked on that character a lot. He also has some inner qualms about being told what to do by the Soviet state. Drago has to kill Apollo Creed. He doesn’t want to do it, but he does it anyway. So, I kind of had played that once before… it was something that I really latched onto, the fact that [Frank Castle] lost his family and what that would do to somebody.”

I’m a fan of Lundgren’s The Punisher, and during a previous interview with Comic Book Couples Counseling, longtime Punisher writer Garth Ennis said that Lundgren delivers his favorite Punisher performance. He said:

“It’s the most honest attempt to capture The Punisher because – as there is in all the others – there is no pulling back, there’s no compromise, there’s no attempt to sweeten him a little bit and take him away from what he so obviously is. In that movie, every time Frank pulls a gun, he doesn’t put it away until a dozen people are dead. He never doubts.”

Check out the original trailer for The Punisher below and let us know what you think about Lundrgen’s version of Frank Castle!