Arte - Charles Bronson Hollywoods Lone Wolf (2020)
With his grizzled moustache and chiselled features, Charles Bronson is the embodiment of virility, the man who exudes an aura of barely suppressed violence, near-animal sexuality, relentless honesty. But who is he really? What is his secret? What is it that men and women, young and old, of all languages, find so fascinating? Often hired to play marginalised Native American or Mexican characters before he was typecast as the image of a lone killer, Bronson was a major figure in the popular cinema of the 1960s and 70s. Charles Bronson's rise to Hollywood stardom may have taken a circuitous route, but his success was clear and in your face. Bronson's penchant to be cast as a lone killer ultimately ended up trapping Bronson in a spiral of typecast roles that brought the actor fame and fortune yet left the actor curiously unfulfilled over time. His enigmatic stone face persona, physical acting and career in Hollywood are worthy of a second look. Known as a revenge-seeking anti-hero who takes pleasure in killing, Charles Bronson is one of the greats of film history, whose career spanned from the 1950s to the 1980s, peaking with “Death Wish”. With numerous archive images and film clips from a career spanning more than 40 years, the documentary tells the story of a former miner who became a late film star. The gray mustache and iron gaze became his trademark. But what is behind the man of stony hardness, who preferred to play the lonely avenger and became the icon of a violent and paranoid America. He shot Henry Fonda, coached Elvis, toasted with Alain Delon, flirted with Liz Taylor, shot anything that moved and beat up entire generations of extras - the actor Charles Bronson was one of Hollywood's famous “tough men”. Bronson has acted in nearly 100 films over the course of a career spanning more than 40 years. His silent appearance in the European western “Once Upon a Time in the West” made him an international star in 1968. But in his home country, the United States, success was a long time coming. Only at the age of 53 is Bronson finally celebrated as a superstar in the USA. The 1974 film “Death Wish” helps him to do this. The highly acclaimed and at the same time heavily criticized film was a gigantic success, but also triggered a violent controversy. In the vigilante crime thriller, Bronson becomes a murderer himself as a merciless avenger. The New York Times called the film disgusting, while viewers in the theaters stood up and applauded. “Death Wish” catapults Charles Bronson to the pinnacle of his success, but at the same time definitively commits him to the role of the relentless avenger. Until almost the end of his career, Bronson seems to be trapped in the image of a loner on a brutal vendetta, which he always tried to shake off. The documentary explores the contradictions of an actor who often played the anti-hero on screen, but lived a private life as a husband and (step)father of seven children. Based on Bronson's career, the documentary also tells the history of popular cinema from the classic Hollywood age with its mythical westerns and adventure films in which Bronson made a name for himself, to the European co-productions of the 1960s, such as Sergio Leone's “Once Upon a Time in the West” to the low-budget Cannon Group films in which he starred in the 80's.
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