The sprightly piece is juxtaposed with static images of Bronson against a vast cityscape. The first of these is the chorus “Chi dona luce al chor?” and it comes as Bronson makes his first journey out of the jail. But before we get there, we need to take stock of four more operatic excerpts layered throughout the film. The “Nabucco” and Wagner actually play pretty crucial roles in the bookending sections of the film. The coronation by Bronson himself has been completed.
![bronson film bronson film](https://www.vertigoreleasing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Bronson-film-images-0c17cc15-ed14-4b8b-bfe5-5a53b76288e.jpg)
He tells the audience that this was the moment where he decided that his fame would come from his revolt within the prison system and at the climax of the scene when the orchestra explodes with Siegfried’s heroic theme over pronounced chords, Refn cuts to a slow-motion shot of Bronson being carried down the hall, celebrated like a hero by the rest of the inmates. As the music builds and builds to its first explosive outburst, Bronson becomes increasingly violent. This time, we hear Siegfried’s funeral march slowly materialize in a sequence where he refuses to do work in the jail.
![bronson film bronson film](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTI2NDg5NjEyOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODQwMjk2Mg@@._V1_.jpg)
Refn, as he does throughout the film, times his cuts to some of the music’s major high points (the first orchestral outburst in the introduction to the chorus is pronounced the moment young Mike Peterson, a.k.a Bronson, gets into his first fight at school).īut Verdi’s piece is one of yearning and nostalgia, a complete contrast to watching the young Mikey Petersen repeatedly get himself into trouble until at the height of both the piece and the sequence, he ends up in jail for a minor offense.Īs the first operatic excerpt of the film, it’s a rather strange experience, but in remembering that we are seeing the story through Bronson’s eyes, it is the first indication of how music expresses how HE sees himself.Īnd that brings us to the second operatic excerpt, which comes rather quickly thereafter. In this montage, Refn employs “Va pensiero” from Verdi’s “Nabucco,” a rather odd choice, especially to explore a sequence that, despite its explicit violence, tends toward the comedic with several gags repeated throughout and even a flirtation gone wrong in a café. It all starts right from the beginning when Bronson starts telling the story of his youth from cradle to prison. Tom Hardy’s engaging performance is the key here, but Refn’s choice to include several famed opera excerpts throughout also plays a major role in defining the film’s tone. The filmmaking’s stark and gritty feel (from the dirty sets to even the grainy imagery) is constantly undermined or counterpointed by other visual elements that keep the story surprisingly light.
![bronson film bronson film](https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.rogerebert.com/uploads/review/primary_image/reviews/bronson-2009/EB20091027REVIEWS910289995AR.jpg)
Told from Bronson’s perspective as a “performance act,” the film latches onto several unique stylistic quirks that immediately alienate the story from its grimy surroundings and add a bit of cognitive dissonance to the proceedings. Finding a way into the mind and world of Charles Bronson, a man who has been imprisoned for decades, most of them spent in solitary confinement, can turn into a grinding, unwatchable experience for a viewer.īut the writing-directing duo’s famed film from 2008 manages the feat through some deft mythmaking. That’s the question that faced director Nicholas Winding Refn and writer Brock Norman Brock.