A History of Violence

Germany, United States

2005

96 Min

Color

1.85:1

English

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
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EXEC Kent Alterman, Cale Boyter, Josh Braun, Toby Emmerich, Justis Greene, Roger Kass

SCR John Wagner, Vince Locke, Josh Olson

CAST Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Maria Bello, Ashton Holmes, Peter MacNeill, Stephen McHattie, Greg Bryk, Kyle Schmid

Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is living a happy and quiet life with his lawyer wife (Maria Bello) and their two children in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana. One night, though, their idyllic existence is shattered when Tom foils a vicious attempted robbery in his diner. He takes action and saves his customers and friends in the self-defense killings of two-sought-after criminals. Heralded as a hero, Tom’s life is changed overnight, attracting a national media circus, which forces him into the spotlight. Uncomfortable with his newfound celebrity, Tom tries to return to the normalcy of his ordinary life only to be confronted by a mysterious and threatening man (Ed Harris) who arrives in town believing Tom is the man who’s wronged him in the past. As Tom and his family fight back against this case of supposed mistaken identity and struggle to cope with their changed reality, they are forced to confront their relationships and the divisive issues which surface as a result. A History of Violence is loosely based on the graphic novel by Vince Locke and John Wagner. –New Line Cinema

Director

David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father was a journalist, and his mother was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early age (he wrote and published eerie short stories, thus following his father’s path) and for music (playing classical guitar until he was 12), Cronenberg graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Literature after switching from the science department. He reached the cult status of horror-meister with the gore-filled, modern-vampire variations of Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977), following an experimental apprenticeship in independent filmmaking and in Canadian television programs.

Cronenberg gained popularity with the head-exploding, telepathy-based Scanners (1981) after the release of the much underrated, controversial, and autobiographical The Brood (1979). Cronenberg become a sort of a mass media guru with Videodrome (1983), a shocking investigation of the hazards of reality-morphing television and a prophetic critique of contemporary aesthetics. The issues of tech-induced mutation of the human body and topics of the prominent dichotomy between body and mind were back again in The Dead Zone (1983) and The Fly (1986), both bright examples of a personal filmmaking identity, even if both films are based on mass-entertainment materials: the first being a rendition of a Stephen King best-seller, the latter a remake of famous American horror movie.

With Dead Ringers (1988) and Naked Lunch (1991), the Canadian director, no more a mere genre movie-maker but a fully realized auteur, got the acclaim of international critics. Such profound statements on modern humanity and ever-changing society are prominent in the provocative Crash (1996) and in the virtual reality essay of eXistenZ (1999), both of which well fared at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. In the last two filmic projects Spider (2002) and A History of Violence (2005), Cronenberg avoids expressing his teratologic and oniric expressionism in favour of a more psycological exploration of human contradictions and idiosyncrasies. –IMDb

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Joaopa

21Apr13

para mim um dos melhores filmes de cronenberg. uma abordagem refinada e poderosa da violência. uma fotografia e posicionamentos de câmera que mostram domínio e entregam um produto extremamente bem acabado e de bom gosto, onde a beleza convive com o gore e com a catarse. uma história silenciosa e calma, mas ao mesmo tempo graficamente forte e potente.

Dominic Simard-Jean

19Mar13

Come on Cronenberg, give me a fucking stylistic approach

Federico Di Folco

3Mar13

Un singolo evento può mutare per sempre il corso della nostra esistenza? Il passato si può seppellire o prima o poi si ripresenta per saldare il conto? Sullo sfondo di queste tematiche, Cronenberg ci regala un grande film, con una fisicità coinvolgente e scene che si distinguono per asprezza ed efficacia.Ennesimo lavoro eccellente di un regista meraviglioso.