Blinky500 feature: Punisher '81

  We open with an off screen explanation of Franks breakout of Rykers as well as a fun confrontation between Frank and Daredevil where reveals he's the God Damn (Batman) Punisher.  After their exchange Frank goes and wraps up the loose end from the previous short.

  You can always count on Chris for two things, and so far this has been true of every short I've seen from him (granted I haven't seen them all... yet...) and those are soundtrack and cinematography.  And editing.  So three things.  But typically the strongest of the three are the first two.  This is no exception.

  Strong performances by Parr and Nick Grock (our favorite Daredevil) in the interaction between the two.  We have a short that is pretty light on action, in fact if there's any action it's all implied in the conversation the two have.  What we have is really just a great character moment, for both characters really.  The dialog seems very true to both characters and the back and forth is great.  I crack up every time Punisher calls Daredevil's costume 'gay ass', because that yellow costume, while classic, is totally gay ass.  Then the final note in the War Journal of 'avoiding spandex' is awesome.  This is the strongest of the four, in my opinion.  It doesn't have action, it doesn't even really have conflict, you just have two well written characters working off each other.  You get a better feel for Punisher and Daredevil in these 6 minutes than what you get from entire movies based around the characters.  Great showing and it could of ended right there.

  We get a brief climax of Frank fixing the mistake of leaving skeezy Santa alive but honestly that was a plot thread I didn't need tied up and it adds a weak spot that this short wouldn't have had otherwise (the director disagrees and you can read what he as to say after the jump, which I suggest you do, I'm not posting it for my health).  It's good that the effort was made, it's more effort to tie up a loose end than we get from a lot of other creative works (take your pick, movies, books, video games, whatever) but I personally could have done without it.  It's made better by Shawn Parr's facial expression toward skeezy Santa when he reveals the huge knife.

Punisher '79-'82 IMDB

Blinky Productions

A word from Chris (stolen from his You Tube) after the jump



A WORD FROM CHRIS

  The original script for Punisher'81 was actually something completely different. The film was supposed to take place whilst Frank Castle was in prison, with cameos from Moon Knight and Bullseye. Unfortunately I was completely incapable of securing a prison or a set that looked like a prison. And believe me, I tried. I spent 11 months looking for a place actually, but to no such luck. So I was ultimately forced to make a choice. Put the series on hold till or IF I ever found a prison or figure out a way to move ahead without one. I made the obvious choice.

  I actually took the script I had written for Punisher'82 and reworked it to fit 81. I changed a few dates and added a line or two in acknowledging a few things and went from there. It sucks that I didn't get to share what I wanted do with the original 81 script, but I gotta admit, the ending to this short is just too awesome to me. It's just desserts.