Originally sentenced to seven years at the age of 19 for a bungled armed robbery, Charles Bronson is now one of the UK’s most notorious and violent inmates of our overcrowded prison system.

He has spent 30 of his 34 years behind bars in solitary confinement, and has not been allowed to mix with other prisoners since 1999, currently languishing in HM Prison Wakefield from where he continues to produce award-winning poetry and art.

Celebrated Danish filmmaker, Nicolas Winding Refn (Fear X, the Pusher trilogy), attempts to make sense of this tortured soul in this psychedelic and controversial biopic that pummels the senses into weary submission.

How do you get inside the mind of a man who has been certified as clinically insane . . . and would you even want to? The stylistic quirks honed in the director’s earlier films are on display here in unflinching and disturbing scenes of violence within the prison walls as the hulking, shaven-headed Bronson (Tom Hardy) readies himself for a beating.

The film’s strongest asset is the leading man, who has bulked up for the role and loses himself in the character, delivering an uncompromising and fearless performance that exudes menace and rage.

He doesn’t hold back for an instant, going full frontal as the inmate weathers a frenzied kicking from prison guards, or turning to the camera to share some thought which has burst into his battered and bruised head.

‘Hold on to your feelings because it’s going to get hairy in here,’ he growls shortly before an altercation with guards in his cell.

As portrayed here, Bronson is something of a deranged circus clown, narrating his episodic life in overlapping flashbacks.

‘My name’s Charles Bronson and all my life, I’ve wanted to be famous,’ he begins, transporting us back to his formative years with his mother (Amanda Burton), moving from Aberystwyth to Merseyside and later to Luton.

‘Before I forget,’ he continues, ‘I did come into this world as Michael Peterson,’ eventually changing his name at the behest of his boxing promoter, Paul Daniels (Matt King).

‘You need a fighting name, like a movie star,’ he advises.

‘Charlton Heston?’ suggests Michael.

‘You’re more the Charles Bronson type,’ replies Paul sagely.

Thus a legend is born, although Refn’s film never really gets beneath the skin of this erratic, crazed, tightly wound and sometimes morbidly funny character.

Violence is graphic and the language spattered with expletives.

Next to Hardy, no other performance in the film has a chance to catch our eye.

Bronson is an acquired taste and it’s hard to imagine anyone actually enjoying this miasma of bare-knuckle rucks, circus sideshow and fractured confessional.

At the beginning of the film, Bronson affirms his desire for fame and celebrity.

Through Refn’s lens, he remains enigmatic.

• Release Date: Friday 13 March 2009
• Certificate: 18
• Runtime: 92mins

More Pictures