Bronson (2008) on Netflix
R20081h 32mActionBiographyCrime
In 1974, Michael Peterson robs a post office with a homemade sawn-off shotgun and is sentenced to seven years. Prison violence stretches the term, and his alter ego, Charles Bronson, emerges.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.0/10151,497 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes76%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1974, Michael Peterson attempts to rob a post office with a homemade sawn-off shotgun. He is caught and sentenced to seven years in jail. Inside, his violence extends his time, and he is sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he rebels and is given drugs he says leave him physically weak. Over decades behind bars, much of it in solitary confinement, Michael Peterson fades and his alter ego, Charles Bronson, takes center stage.
Cast
- Jon Houseas Webber
- Andrew St. Johnas Workshop Supervisor
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bronson (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Real-life prisoner Charles Bronson was so impressed by Tom Hardy's physical transformation and impersonation of him that he shaved off his own trademark mustache so it could be used as a prop for Hardy to wear in the film, telling The Times that Hardy was 'more like me than I am.'
- On 15 November 2011 Charles Bronson was granted permission to view the film about his own life. He described it as “theatrical, creative, and brilliant” and heaped praise upon Hardy, but disagreed with the implied distance between himself and his father, and with the portrayal of a former prisoner and nightclub owner as “a bit of a ponce”.
- Tom Hardy said the real Charles Bronson does 2,500 push-ups a day, which Hardy did not attempt. He had only five weeks to put on as much weight as possible for the part, a lot of it fat: “I ate everything.”
- Onscreen text at the end of the film states that by the early 2000s Bronson had already spent 30 years of his sentence in solitary confinement with no planned release date, making him, by the film's account, Britain's most dangerous prisoner.
- Charles Bronson was not initially allowed to view the film, but said that if his mother liked it he was sure he would as well; according to director Nicolas Winding Refn's DVD audio commentary, his mother said she loved it.
