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Bronson (2008) 
 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172570/

Bronson is a 2008 British biographical crime film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Tom Hardy. The film follows the life of notorious prisoner Michael Gordon Peterson, who was re-named Charles Bronson by his fight promoter. Born into a respectable middle class family, Peterson would nevertheless become one of the United Kingdom's most dangerous criminals, and is known for having spent almost his entire adult life in solitary confinement. Bronson is narrated with humour, blurring the line between comedy and horror.

  Tom Hardy  ...  Charles Bronson / Michael Peterson  
  Kelly Adams  ...  Irene  
  Luing Andrews  ...  Hysterical Screw  
  Katy Barker  ...  Julie  
  Gordon Brown  ...  Screw  
  Amanda Burton  ...  Charlie's Mum  
  Mark Devenport  ...  Nurse 1  
  Paul Donnelly  ...  Screw  
  Andrew Forbes  ...  Charlie's Dad  
  Jon House  ...  Webber  
  Matt King  ...  Paul Daniels  
  James Lance  ...  Phil  
  Holly Lucas  ...  Young Man  
  Juliet Oldfield  ...  Alison  
  Jonny Phillips  ...  Prison Governor  

For his role in the movie, Hardy met the real life Charles Bronson in prison. The movie was filmed in and around the St. Ann's, Sherwood, Worksop and Welbeck Abbey areas of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. The post office shown at the beginning of the film is located in Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

The movie takes on a fearsome purity, refusing to find reasons, indifferent to motives, not even finding causes and effects. It is 92 minutes of rage, acted by Tom Hardy. This is a versatile actor. As you'd expect, he's made a lot of British gangster movies (RocknRolla, Layer Cake, Sucker Punch) but he's also played Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist and Heathcliff in a TV adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Hardy brings a raw physicality to the role, leaping naked about his cell, jumping from tables, hurtling himself into half a dozen guards, heedless of pain or harm. It must hurt him, because it makes us wince to watch. The word is animalistic.

They say one definition of insanity is when you repeat the same action expecting a different result. Bronson must therefore not be insane. He repeats the same actions expecting the same results. He goes out of his way to avoid different outcomes. During one stretch of comparative passivity, he's allowed to go to the prison art room and work with an instructor. He enjoys this, I think. He isn't a bad artist. When it appears he may be showing progress, what does he do? He takes the instructor hostage and is beaten senseless by guards.

I showed magic in there! he shouts after one brawl, bleeding in triumph. How's that? Magic, like in opening night? Does he expect a standing ovation? I believe most of us, no matter how self-destructive, expect some sort of reward for our behavior. It may not be some people's idea of a reward, but it's ours. Is Bronson then an extreme masochist, who only wants to be hurt? They say there are masochists like that, but surely there's a limit. What kind of passionate dementia does it require to want to be beaten bloody for 34 straight years?

I suppose, after all, Nicolas Winding Refn, the director and co-writer of Bronson, was wise to leave out any sort of an explanation. Can you imagine how you'd cringe if the film ended in a flashback of little Mickey undergoing childhood trauma? There is some human behavior beyond our ability to comprehend. I was reading a theory the other day that a few people just happen to be pure evil. I'm afraid I believe it. They lack any conscience, any sense of pity or empathy for their victims. But Bronson is his own victim. How do you figure that?