Lorrie Palmer, "Le Western Noir": The Punisher as Revisionist Superhero Western

(In The Amazing Transforming Superhero)

This chapter convincingly argues that superheroes are the descendants of the male heroes of westerns and films noir, using the 2004 The Punisher film as an example. In this case, we're dealing with revision/reintroduction in a broad sense, in terms of the reintroduction of an archetype. (An archetype which is also manifest in action hero films, naturally.) My work is more concerned with the internal process of reintroduction, but evidently my primary texts are engaged in a larger reintroduction of a certain kind of action hero (along with new additions to the genre, such as Crank and Shoot 'Em Up).

What's interesting is that The Punisher, that most cinematic of superheroes, sort of comes full circle by returning to the screen (after the earlier Dolph Lundgren incarnation). Heavily influenced not only by westerns and films noir but also by the 1970s vigilante action hero, it seems only fitting that he be given a very similar filmic treatment.

One thing that Palmer doesn't discuss in enough depth is how in The Punisher, the civilization/savagery dichotomy is inverted, because the rich, gentrified villains are in fact savage and the rough-edged tenement building dwellers represent civility, not unlike revisionist western films which attempt to elevate native culture and condemn Manifest Destiny.

The article also made me consider that action films as a formal genre don't really emerge until the 1980s - prior to that action-oriented films tend to operate within other genres, such as the police procedural, the gangster film, the western and so on. It is only in the high concept era that there begins to exist a concept of what "an action film" is. Interesting.