Reinvention Is Better Than Cure

The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

They say that when it comes to destiny you often don’t get to choose the path your life eventually heads into, but that it chooses you.  Somewhere along the way, if you are that diligent, you take stock and realise there’s been a constant theme, one that seems to repeats itself, over and over.

Often, at first, you don’t seem to recognise it. Perhaps ignorance plays its blissful self. But when you are confronted head-on with what you chose not to see and you realise it’s been there all along, staring you straight in the eye, there’s no way denying what you deep down already suspected for a very long time.

And that is that this repetition of events is not the result of some unseen force coercing your life into a certain direction, no, you are stuck, like a broken record, spinning around in one place to the tune only You have chosen for yourself every step of the way.

Upon this possible life-altering realisation, there is one of two things you can do:

One, seek an alternative way of living and pursue it diligently, or two, accept who and what your Maker seemingly made you and then stick to your guns.

  If your name is Michael Gordon Peterson a.k.a ‘Charles’ or ‘Charlie Bronson’ as he fondly refers to himself, you’ll definitely stick with guns and make peace with the fact that you were always meant to be Britain’s most notorious and violent career criminal.

In the movie ‘Bronson’ Tom Hardy plays the villainous Charlie Bronson, a man who in his own mind is no rebel without cause. There seems to be no end or limitations to his nefarious creativity and his calling, no matter how secular you and I might think it to be, is to one-up the 
 state and the system it represents at any cost and at every possible opportunity. 

  But our black marketeer is no Robin Hood either, stealing from the rich to hand out the spoils to the poor. No sir. There’s only one rule Charlie adheres to and that’s – each man for himself, precisely how this delinquent lawbreaker likes it.

The story follows him and his illustrious career as a specialist of violence in several of Britain’s penitentiaries.  But the vigorous attempts of the authorities to try to rehabilitate old Charlie proves more often than none to be an exercise in futility than anything else.

Due to his seemingly incurable maniacal nature, at one time he is sent to an institution for the criminally insane. Here they have a very different approach to dealing with tough customers as himself and instead of handing out beatings and prolonged periods in isolation, syringes full of tranquilisers are jabbed into his bottom, keeping our boy nice and relaxed - the way they believe he is meant to be.

Being too relaxed for his own liking, Charles, yet again, works out a way of making the system work for him before he unleashes his old fiery self onto his foes.

Out of desperation they release him, now classified as sane, and pretty soon he gets to sow havoc again like only he knows best.

Tom Hardy plays his character to perfection in Bronson and proves he is one of the most electrifying up-and-coming actors currently on cinema circuit. The story is well told from a first person perspective, which makes also for an interesting and intriguing format.

The directional choices are good ones and the film has a clever music score to highlight Mr Bronson in the various scenes and scenarios at his demented best.

Watch ‘Bronson’ even if only to appreciate someone else’s idea of choosing the road less travelled.