As a source material the character was created by Gerry Conway, and drawn by John Romita Sr., It was inspired by an earlier paperback pulp series, that Conway read in his youth called The Executioner , by author Don Pendleton. Punisher became a man obsessed with his one man war against the mafia. The film took that concept and adopted what they felt was a more suitable story for a contemporary audience; and delivered it! on it's very modest budget.
Conway who at sixteen years of age was a fan of the Marvel publishing company and the comic book industry in general, with its stable of characters and storylines. As it is by law, publishers had to have their head office address printed in their issues; Seizing the opportunity a naïve and enthusiastic teenage Conaway, visited the publishing company and took on their daily tours, and would repeatedly visit weekly to the point he made friends with the writers, and artists. When Stan Lee became publisher of Marvel comics he stopped writing all comics he was famed for penning like the Fantastic Four and the Amazing Spiderman. It was during his transition as publisher, when Stan Lee gave the unknown Gerry Conaway who was 18 yrs old at the time carte blanche to write the Amazing Spiderman. Gerry had started writing a few short stories and was given the reigns to headline the company's franchise character. The gamble was more methodical than some would like, the writers from the 40's and 50's were now reaching retirement and felt they deserve benefits, To save costs
Marvel ushered in all new staff and writers to offset the costs to a senior team, The younger staff was more eager and ambitious to prove themselves with taking these beloved characters to new heights of the Silver era. In his time as writer Gerry wrote the death of Gwen Stacey storyline, in that arc, the main Spiderman villain Green Goblin had also concluded. Gerry had to come up with another major antagonist, and eight issues later we the readers were introduced to the Jackal. The Jackal had an enforcer, who was nameless at the time, but would be the Punisher, The Jackal as you might of guess was a green masked villain, sharing great similarities to the Green Goblin in appearance. Learning the Jackal misrepresented himself and skewed the truth, The punisher revealed he had a moral code and turned on the jackal, though the punisher's first appearance in Amazing Spiderman #129 sits with its current value between $2000 to $13,000;
It's first ever print was auctioned off at $2 Million dollars. Ironically the issue when it was released on news-stands at the time did not sell very well, or gain an audience. The character would be revisited many years later by the next writer Frank Millar who fleshed out his backstory during the Marvel Knights period with Joe Quesada as head publisher, this iteration of the character impacted the consciousness of the readers and help rejuvenate Marvel from the heels of near bankruptcy in the late 1990s.
The trademark skull and the one man war on crime was based on Don Pendleton series that featured a character Mack Bolan, in a total of 37 novels under the heading 'Mafia Wars', the Bolan character had taken his fight on terrorism all over the world by the end of its run. Conaway who has said on record to have read the novels, did not say he was inspired by Pendleton's work, but it's obvious there was on an unconscious level of influence.
The skull appearance was from the pages of Pendleton's books, but was modified and became a chest insignia to the Marvel property's main character. Which brings us to the movie. Marvel did not have creative control on this film, they had licensing rights and had staff available for consultation like Conaway or the co-creator Ross Andru, But the producers of New line Australia and the film's creative team felt a skull on the chest would not be believable on a film medium. So the decision to have skulls at the base of every knife that the punisher threw would be his signature calling card.
Shot in Australia, new line cinema gave a modest budget of $9 Million dollars, its star Dolph Lundgren who was at the top of his notoriety with Rocky IV and Masters of the Universe already released in theatres a few years prior. Was an actor still learning English and as such the character was written with only a handful of dialogue throughout the course of the movie. Co-Star Lou Gossett Jr. who had limited screen time with his leading co-star, was an Oscar award winning actor with his role in 'An Officer & an Gentleman'. Gossett Jr. masterfully anchored the emotional and dramatic beats of the film remarkably well, giving the right amount of pathos and emphasis on story plot when needed. The movie's Director Mark Goldblatt has only directed 3 films to date, Punisher was his second feature film, a zombie comedy which got a wide theatrical release a year prior Dead Heat, under performed at the box office, but caught the attention of the studio heads. Goldblatt is a visionary, he is better known in the industry for being a editor, working on some of the biggest films of the 1990's from James Cameron's Terminator 2 to Michael Bay's 2001 Pearl Harbor.
The writer of Punisher 1989 is also a heavy weight in Hollywood circles, Boaz Yakin who cut his teeth writing the screenplay for Punisher 1989, According to Imdb, Punisher was his first adapted screenplay to reach the movie theatre audience. Yakin has penned the Denzel Washington movie Remember the Titans and both 'Now you See Me' films. Surprisingly in reality Punisher 1989 did get a theatrical release overseas, but was eventually released on VHS in 1991 in North America, New Line Australia had changed hands and the film was in limbo for distribution during that period. After reviewing the film it can be perceived that executives lacked confidence on it success in theatres.
If you were to say the hero was a vigilante who worked in the shadows, who meditated without wearing clothing in sewers and fought ninjas throughout the movie. The first impression would be ninja turtles, There is a 10 minute reel on YouTube highlighting all the Punisher fight and action sequences in the movie. So the take away is about seventy minutes with no action; as misleading as that may sound, the film has an entertaining supporting cast, which for its time was very progressive in thinking.
The villains are two women, the lead detective is an African American male, with a female partner who is more than competent at her job. The stereotype of Italian mafia, and Japanese Yakuza is a veiled plot device, but that serves a motivation for the anti-hero. The film is poorly constructed visually when capturing fight chorography, the budget or lack of budget for set design for the final fight scene is obvious, but Norma Moriceau who just like the writer and director is more known for something else, as a costume designer; working on the costumes of the Mad Max Franchise, and Crocodile Dundee films. The Art Director Peta Lawson; another Australian native, who established herself in her early years as an art director and production designer on either film or television. made the same studio space seem like 5 different scenes. So from the perspective of the Director Mark Boblatt, your heads of each department are relatively new and not seasoned professionals. And working to get the best out of your actors, who your main star cannot act; and capturing stunt and fight choreography with long static shots was not sensible of an editor turned director. On first glance the film's pacing is off, Lundgren screen time and lack of character presence is sorely noticed, the film gets by on its earnestness and the commitment of its actors who deliver decent performances. There is enough movie parts to keep your interests, but the quality of the movie leaves you wanting, watching in either the eyes of viewer from the 1990s or re-watching in the year 2021 the film is very much a forgettable movie
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