In 1974, a hot-headed 19 year old named Michael Peterson decided he wanted to make a name for himself and so, with a homemade sawn-off shotgun and a head full of dreams he attempted to rob a post office. Swiftly apprehended and originally sentenced to 7 years in jail, Peterson has subsequently been behind bars for 34 years, 30 of which have been spent in solitary confinement. During that time, Michael Petersen, the boy, faded away and 'Charles Bronson,' his superstar alter ego, took center stage...  With the same brutal yet operatic flair he brought to his previous films, "The Pusher Trilogy, " director Nicholas Winding Refn gets inside the mind of Bronson, and delivers not only a portrait of an artist bereft of an outlet, but also a scathing indictment of celebrity culture.