Until last night, I hadn't been to the Harvard Film Archive in 15, maybe 20 years. What prompted me to go for the first time in many years was a showing of a documentary called The Chilean Charles Bronson (Or Exactly Identical).
Directed by Carlos Flores del Pino and released in 1981 (but shown in the United States for the very first time), The Chilean Charles Bronson tells the story of Fenelón Guajardo, a boxer who won a celebrity lookalike contest on a popular Chilean TV show in 1975. At the time of this contest, Bronson was the biggest box office attraction in the entire world. So walking down the streets of Santiago looking like the spitting image of Charles Bronson at the height of Bronson's fame was a sight to behold.
Fenelon (who preferred to be called Fernando) wants to have an international film career just like Charles Bronson. Towards the end of the movie, Flores del Pino directs a scene envisioned by Fernando for a Chilean Charles Bronson movie. The idea isn't bad, but the execution is absurd. The barfight between the Chilean Charles Bronson and the bad guy somehow ends up in the countryside.
Yet I have to keep in mind that this was a low budget movie made over several years. There is one scene where Fernando is talking to several men about his experiences as Chilean Charles Bronson. But they are on a rooftop and they must pace and back and forth. The fact that they must do this detracts from the content of their conversation.
You could have heard a pin drop when the movie concluded. Nothing. Just nothing.
The main reason I went to see The Chilean Charles Bronson is because Fenelon Guajardo (who apparently died in 2013 about 10 years after Bronson passed away) had the right idea at the wrong time. Because there is a Hungarian actor named Robert Bronzi who also looks like Charles Bronson and has been making several direct to video Bronson inspired action films beginning with Death Kiss in 2018.
I have not seen this Bronzi films except for clips on Facebook and YouTube. But it is fascinating because Bronzi really does look like Bronson came back from the dead to make new movies.
Bronzi is 72. When his time comes will there be a new Charles Bronson to take his place? If there is a market for those films, then yes. In which case, where will we find him? Indonesia or Indiana? So long as there is bloodlust and a death wish then there will be a need for someone who looks like Charles Bronson.
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