Ray Stevenson Made Sure Punisher: War Zone Didn't Sugarcoat The Cost Of Violence

Lexi Alexander's 2008 film "Punisher: War Zone" may be one of the most gonzo mainstream superhero films ever made. Like going to a drive-in on acid, "War Zone" is brutally violent to a cartoonish degree. The mayhem tally is one for the record books. The title character, played by Ray Stevenson, punches a man so hard, his fist exits the back of his head. In another scene, the Punisher hangs by his knees from a chandelier, a gun in each hand, spinning around as he lays waste to a ballroom full of baddies. The film's villain falls face-first into a bottle-crushing machine, leaving his face a stitched-up patchwork mask. In one amazing shot, a hopped-up parkour enthusiast is exploded with a rocket launcher while in midair. The film's final line of dialogue is one of the Punisher's friends complaining that he has human brain matter on him.

"War Zone" is a hoot, and Alexander would agree; she was game enough to talk about her film on the comedy podcast "How Did This Get Made?" 

Stevenson, however, had a much darker view of the film. In playing the Punisher, a.k.a. Frank Castle, he had to look into the character's propensity for revenge and need for violence. Stevenson saw not a campy, happy murder man, but a deeply wounded soul. In a 2008 interview with Collider, Stevenson noted that the film's extreme violence served a purpose beyond mere thrills. The actor felt that seeing Frank Castle committing murder was an ongoing commentary on the morality of vigilante justice, and the bleak places it might lead. 

In honor of Stevenson's recent passing, let's take a look at how the actor made sure "Punisher: War Zone" didn't sugarcoat the cost of violence.

Stevenson was in the position of having to do some "Punisher" research before appearing on screen. He didn't know much about the character prior to the movie, and was quite shocked to find out just how violent the premise was. For those not in the know, The Punisher saw his family murdered by gangsters and henceforth devoted his life to fighting crime. His tactics, however, are brutal; he usually dispatches criminals with guns and bullets. Stevenson was startled, saying:

"I wasn't aware of it to be real honest with you. I came to it when it was first broached to me. In all fairness, when I first read it, I thought, 'This is just extremely violent. What the hell is this?' But very quickly Garth Ennis' writing sucked me right in. I thought, 'My god, he doesn't shy away!' It does raise moral issues and psychological issues and he doesn't pull away from it. He will throw it in there and commit to it. It was his writing that then brought me in."

It was important to Stevenson that the Punisher not emerge from the film as heroic or aspirational. Stevenson was attracted to the script's handling of the character as a wounded, damaged human being. In fact, Stevenson felt that the more extreme the violence became, the stronger the anti-violence message would be. If the Punisher, for instance, only beat people up like Batman, he might emerge as heroic, even noble. If he punches people all the way through their heads, however, one can see that he's somewhat psychotic.

Stevenson explained: 

"In fact, the extreme violence — if you water it down and try and make it a bit less — you wouldn't get the same stakes as far as the moral issues and the price that's paid. You need that extreme violence as the foil to Frank's dark, bleak existence. There's a price to be paid. You don't want to be Frank. It's strange to have the sort of lead or hero of a film that you don't actually want to be. That's what intrigued me. And I said to them, 'I don't want people walking out of the theater wanting to be Frank Castle.' I said, 'We've gotta get it in the script.'"

Whether or not one sees the violence in "War Zone" as tragic or comedic — it can read as either — the message is clear; you do not want to be Frank Castle. Indeed, there isn't a way for Frank Castle to ever come out on the other side of this. He can never stop fighting crime, and that's not a good thing. Unlike other heroes, whose perpetual heroism is depicted as grand and noble, Frank Castle will never wash the blood off his hands. Stevenson liked that version of the character. He said of Frank: 

"He's in such a dark place. He may have made his peace with that, but there's no light at the end of the tunnel. There's no redemption for Frank. That's deeply intriguing."

Stevenson also said that he eventually caught up with the two earlier "Punisher" movies that had been made in 1989 and in 2004. Unsurprisingly, he liked his version the best.