Before watching (or, I should say, re-watching) The Punisher: One Last Kill, I asked Alexa whether it is considered a movie.  It said yes, but you will see other places where it is considered a “television special,” being under an hour in length.  Such is a nebulous descriptor, and I am not sure what else to call it other than a movie.  At the same time, a Catholic reviewer has to contend with the excessive amount of violence contained therein.  More specifically, there is the topic of revenge, one that is a common motivation for action heroes, but that also poses problems for a person of Faith.  Let us just say that, while one can sympathize with the title character, Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), turning the other cheek is not in his vocabulary.

Speaking of not turning the other cheek, The Punisher: One Last Kill starts with Frank fresh off his most recent revenge quest.  It is not something that is shown, but a news broadcast talks about the systematic killing of the entire Gnucci crime family at the hands of the infamous vigilante.  If you are familiar with any of the series on Netflix, and now Disney+, in which this character has appeared, you will know that his guiding impetus has been to avenge the murder of his family.  Having watched these other stories, I had thought this had been accomplished already, but the job of revenge is never complete.  This time, though, it is supposedly complete, and Frank is seemingly unable to move on with his life.  Further, he is haunted by different figures from his past, like his dead family and his fellow former Marine force recon soldier, Curtis Hoyle (Jason R. Moore).  The memories of his family are bittersweet, but the scenarios he imagines with Curtis and other one-time comrades are more accusatory as to whether Frank has done well.  The turmoil brings on pill popping and drinking for Frank, and then tearing up things in his humble apartment, including the wall of research pertaining to the Gnuccis.  The final act is locking up his weapons and leaving his dwelling for the first time in what has apparently been a while.  Outside, the neighborhood is in chaos.  We have already seen some of this when a homeless Marine veteran (John Douglas Thompson) is accosted by a group of hoodlums, who steal his dog and throw it in front of a moving garbage truck.  It is implied that the reason for the bedlam is because of a power vacuum created by the fall of the house of Gnucci (sorry), with every low-level thug taking the opportunity to carry out all manner petty crime.  As Frank walks to Dre’s (Andre Royo) coffee shop for some caffeine, the emotionally shattered Punisher witnesses some of the craziness for himself.  As Dre is being bothered by one of the revelers, Frank notices the proprietor’s daughter, Charli (Mila Jaymes).  Charli reminds Frank of his deceased little girl, Lisa (Addie Bernthal), though he has designs on soon reuniting with the rest of his family.  This is because his next stop is the cemetery the graves of the other Castles, where he intends to blow his brains out.  However, with the figure of Lisa before him, he finds that he cannot pull the trigger.  As he returns home, he is once again taunted by the Curtis’ specter, as well as his alter ego of The Punisher.  With a tenuous hold on reality, he is surprised when he is accosted outside his building by Ma Gnucci (Judith Light).  She has come to lay all the killings Frank had done of her family at his feet, and to tell him that at the exact time of her youngest son’s demise, he will be attacked by a wave of armed men.  As he counts down the minutes until this is to happens, he is visited by one more ghost, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), one of his few acquaintances still alive.  Though she has mean things to say, too, eventually he breaks down and asks whether she is real.  Instead, she reminds him of what time it is, and this is when the brutality commences.  From here on out, the film is about Frank mowing down the small horde of thugs sent to kill him.  Ma Gnucci is watching outside, but is forced to retreat when he comes tumbling over the side of the roof, bounces off a bus, gets up, and keeps going.  With this target out of reach, he hears cries from Charli in the coffee shop and helps Dre’s family.  In gratitude, the little girl hands Frank a knit flower, which touches him.  He lays the gift on Lisa’s tomb, before admitting to his wife’s, Maria Castle (Kelli Barrett), that he still has more work to do.  The final scene has Frank back in his Punisher gear getting retribution for the homeless Marine who had his dog stolen.

It is tempting to have sympathy for a Marine like Frank in The Punisher: One Last Kill.  The person I feel more sorry for is the homeless veteran who has his pet taken and killed.  It feels strange to say so, but that scene almost brought me to tears.  For as long as I can remember, I have had a heart for people in such desperate circumstances.  Since I have began practicing Catholicism in earnest, my sympathy has only grown.  Sympathy seems too small a word.  Truly, my heart breaks for them, which is related to Christian teaching.  There is plenty in the Bible about helping the unfortunate.  I would count Frank among those people, even if I do not approve of his actions.  Though his imagination accuses him of being too soft on himself, we can also say that those are lies told by the enemy to keep him in a depressed state.  It is while he is in such a state that he nearly takes his own life, which would have only compounded his spiritual problems.  This is what makes his encounter with Charli key.  In 1 Corinthians 1:27, St. Paul reminds us that God uses the weak to shame the strong.  It is Charli’s gesture with the flower that tells Frank that he can offer his talents, such as they are, for causes greater than his desire for vengeance.  Further, it speaks to him being more than just a killing machine.  I say this because of a moment he has with Curtis’ projection when Frank admits that he needs help.  Frank says this because Curtis says that he will always be there for the man he calls a brother.  Admitting that we are vulnerable by being shown this fact by the vulnerable to world is a good foundation for building a relationship with God.

Nonetheless, I would not say that The Punisher: One Last Kill has a spiritual conclusion.  After all, the last shot is of Frank shooting the homeless Marine veteran’s attacker.  Because there is a lot of such things, I do not recommend this to many audiences, but there is something deeper to Frank Castle than being a killer.