National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

New World Pictures released The Punisher in 1989, a modest production that arrived during the first wave of Marvel adaptations reaching the screen before the modern superhero era. Starring Dolph Lundgren in the title role, the film found its audience largely through home video and international markets, and remains a curio of late-1980s action cinema and early Marvel licensing history.

This cell, titled Family Reunion Massacre, captures a repeated sequence from the film's outdoor tropical setting, where Frank Castle and Gianni Franco appear amid dense palm vegetation. The triple-frame presentation preserves the same shot across three exposures — a figure bent over equipment, a yellow element anchoring the lower frame — offering a rare look at how 35mm printing occasionally carried duplicate frames through a pivotal confrontation between these two characters.