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The Punisher, AKA Frank Castle, is an oft-romanticized anti-hero, admired and beloved for his violent approach to justice and brazen disregard for conventional morality. Castle is the quintessential "chaotic good" protagonist. He is also associated with the fetishization of guns and vigilante justice.
John Bernthal’s portrayal of the character in Netflix's "The Punisher" series is guilty of glamorizing these ideas to some extent, but Bernthal and the show also demonstrate how Castle’s nature is self-defeating. Castle is less morally black-and-white than say, Captain America. Ironically, his black-and-white view of justice makes him a more complex, morally gray character, as this attitude isn't shaped by traditional ethics or rational thought. Rather, it's a combination of lateral thinking and extreme, nihilistic pragmatism. However, this kind of judgment is a thought process that does not allow room for empathy. Instead of embracing this as a stoic trait, Marvel's "Punisher" doesn’t necessarily depict this as a strength. In fact, it is portrayed as a symptom of a very real sickness, a sickness from which countless Americans suffer and have suffered...especially those who served in the armed forces.
John Bernthal's Frank Castle, the Punisher, is shown for what he is - or rather, what someone like him would look like in the real world. He's often hard to sympathize with, especially since he rarely sympathizes with anyone whom he judges in need of "punishment." Though admittedly Castle's strict adherence to avoiding collateral damage (usually) and saving the violence for those who are themselves violent criminals can make certain scenes in the show feel cathartic, the brutality by which he dispatches foes can sometimes be more gut-wrenching than satisfying.
There's no point in avoiding the ugly truth: it can be cathartic to see antagonists get brutalized. It scratches a primitive itch in some of the oldest corners of the human mind. Violent movies, shows, and video games are popular for a reason. Arguably, this is the whole point of the character; while Marvel's main pantheon includes more cut-and-dry, clean-handed good guys like Captain America and Dr. Strange, Frank Castle takes the "good guys win, bad guys lose" dichotomy to an extreme degree in the name of satire.
Much of the "punishment" Castle doles out on antagonists can be truly difficult to watch. This incarnation of the character is a reality check on the classic romanticized gritty anti-hero. Frank Castle is not a traditional protagonist in that he's not really a hero - he's not someone anyone should aspire to be.
He's also not someone who should be despised, necessarily. He's a victim, too...a victim of the war economy, classism, government corruption, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His obsession with doling out justice using blood-splattered assault rifles and greasy sawed-off shotguns may reflect his audience's fetish for firearms and war or even their frustration with the shortcomings of the American justice system…but his constant struggle to adapt to normal, post-war life and inability to transcend his past aren't just meant to make him seem edgy. They're meant to show the audience that Frank is struggling with untreated, undiagnosed trauma.
"Punisher" is about a comic book character who has traditionally been considered a beloved iconoclast among would-be vigilantes and gun enthusiasts...yet, the story of Frank Castle isn't about why edgy vigilantes who commit extrajudicial murder are "necessary." At its core, "Punisher" is about what war does to people both mentally and physically. This isn't portrayed in a positive light. If anything, Frank Castle is portrayed as a slave to violence, rather than its master.
A running theme throughout season 1 is the difficulty had by soldiers returning to normal life after active duty. There are numerous characters whose lives are strangled by PTSD, yet some of them are not able to get the help they need. At one point, Frank refers to himself thusly: "I am a reminder...all men die!" Castle's cohort David Lieberman points out that the skull on Castle's costume is a memento mori - a visual reminder of death and mortality. Without spoiling anything, in the show's second to last episode, Frank is haunted by visions of his deceased wife. Frank's perspective flits back and forth between these visions and his present reality, in which he is badly losing a fight against someone who had wronged him in an unforgivable way. His wife beckons to him, asks him to follow her "home." This scene represents his inner struggle between his desire to let his past go in order to find peace...and persisting with his obsession with revenge.
Frank isn't the only character struggling with PTSD. Billy Russo, his former squadmate and close personal friend, also finds it difficult to let go of his past. He begins a paramilitary operation, "Anvil", in which he claims to find meaning by giving veterans like himself and Castle work in private security, exercising what they know best. Throughout season 1, Russo often references "how far [he has] come", which could imply not only his experiences in war but his trauma-filled childhood. Jason R. Moore's Curtis Hoyle is perhaps the only example in the series of a soldier returning from war who manages to function, but even he tells Castle and other characters more than once that each day is a struggle. Then, perhaps most tragically of all, there's Daniel Webber's character Lewis Wilson, who is utterly incapable of making sense of anything that isn't directly tied to combat and war - whether it's his relationship to his father, his professional life, even sleeping in his own bed.
Hollywood films have long glamorized violence - the more gratuitous, the better. Kids who manage to see violent TV shows and movies get playground cred for having seen something reserved for the eyes of grown-ups. Adults get to indulge a savage part of themselves through the relatively harmless act of viewing simulated violence on TV, in movies, and in video games. Netflix's Marvel series (all of them) are just as guilty of milking this as most are of enjoying seeing Daredevil beat up a building full of mafia thugs. Even in this case, Marvel's "Daredevil" doesn't shy away from the reality of a brutal fistfight - even with his specialized suit, when Matt Murdock gets stabbed, he limps for weeks. When he takes a few to the face, clients and coworkers ask him how his face became covered in bruises.
Netflix's Marvel shows have always indulged in cathartic violence on one hand and portrayed the reality of it in equal measure. "Punisher" is the best example of this yet; Castle is the most brutal of Netflix's Marvel protagonists, not because he’s simply “a badass.” He doesn't pop people's eyes with his thumbs or saw their heads off with combat knives because he's "a badass", he does it because he's constantly, constantly suffering from PTSD. He's tormented by his own vivid memories, and his inability to stop re-living them.
Frank Castle, Billy Russo, Lewis Wilson, and Curtis Hoyle lost a great deal because of what pulling the trigger on a human being does to you. Besides that, the people they turned their guns on, and their families and friends, lost even more. Marvel's "Punisher" is a show that gun enthusiasts and NRA apologists should take a closer look at…or perhaps re-watch and reconsider from a different perspective. Nothing good ever comes of guns. The only ones who don't think so are those who are truly ignorant.