Howard Saint is the main villain created originally for the 2004 version of Marvel’s The Punisher and is portrayed by actor John Travolta. Travolta gained fame for his earlier roles in films like Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978), with the latter earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
While 2004’s The Punisher received poor reviews from critics, the film generated favourable reviews from fans. Travolta was praised for his charismatic and energetic performance, balancing the darker moments of the film.
Howard Saint Was A Ruthless Villain To The Punisher
Howard Saint is the powerful mastermind of the Saint family in Miami, Florida. Running money and all drug-related activity, Howard amassed a wealth of influence that would make him a significant foe to Frank Castle.
Howard’s main agenda against The Punisher is to destroy him for killing his son, Bobby, during an FBI sting. He gets his wish to an extent, killing Castle’s family but failing to kill Castle.
Howard Saint is portrayed as a ruthless, cold, and calculating leader with a violent temper. He perceives people as tools to be used to maintain and grow his power. After a failed mission to kill The Punisher, he quickly assesses his threat and manipulates events to further his mission.
Succumbing to the events around him, The Punisher becomes paranoid, which makes sense given that the film is an homage to Shakespeare’s Othello, as reported by Soundtrack.
Howard Saint’s weakness of jumping to conclusions too quickly is exploited by Frank Castle.
The Punisher Movie Deserves More Praise
While far from being a perfect film, the tone of the film captures the spirit of the comics with its gritty and violent themes. Keeping it street-level worked in favour of The Punisher‘s usual storylines, allowing for more character exploration instead of the usual Marvel world-ending storylines.
Here are some key details of The Punisher film:
The movie was faithful to Frank Castle’s origin story, from the death of his family to his transformation into a vigilante. Thomas Jane portrayed Castle with a lot of emotion and showed audiences Frank’s unwavering spirit for vengeance.
Jane’s The Punisher complemented Travolta’s performance, who brought his star experience to deliver a noteworthy and chilling portrayal.
Despite being a Marvel film, the vein of the movie was rooted in a style of neo-noir thriller that was new to the superhero genre. Given that The Punisher is an antihero, the noir feel gave the moral ambiguity the film needed to tell a good, grounded story.
With movies like Spider-Man and X-Men releasing around the time of The Punisher, this movie was ahead of its time and would’ve been well-received today for subverting the genre.
What do you think of Travolta’s performance as Howard Saint? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
The Punisher is not available to stream in the U.S.