History Of Violence, A (2005)
Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

In this thrill-packed actioner, a small-town diner owner, Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen, The Lord of The Rings) finds himself a local hero after he successful takes down two thugs during an attempted robbery. But his sudden celebrity draws unwanted attention from the outside world, including mobsters Carl Fogarty (Academy Award® nominee Ed Harris, A Beautiful Mind) and Richie Cusack (Academy Award® winner William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman), who insist that Tom is intricately tied to their past. Fogarty begins stalking Tom's wife (Maria Bello, The Cooler) and children, resulting in a bloody standoff in which Tom must protect his family from what is either a case of mistaken identity or a violent past that's finally caught up with him.

User Comment: TheMoviehead (wutzhizname01@hotmail.com) from Hamilton, Ontario - Canada, 7 October 2005 • Leaving this film (just an hour ago now) I heard a phrase rolling over and over again in my head: "Wow. Jesus Christ. Wow". That was not meant in a religious sense but in a sense which I cannot find adequate words to relate. I found myself saying "Why?...Oh my god!...How?...Wow...". The film touches, it festers, crawls all over and inside you. The film does (I think) what Cronenberg intended it to do; frighten. I'm speaking of real fear that is not spoken out loud, not discussed or screamed about,or even fully understood. The best and only word I have to describe the film is that it is "unsettling".

I won't discuss the points relating to the sexuality of the film but will quickly address the violence. I read Cronenberg's answers to some questions raised by the film, most relating to the violence itself. He mentions that it is "intimate, nasty, brutish and quick" also going on at length on the utilitarian nature of the violent acts in the film. This is perhaps the first film I've seen to display violence in, what I consider to be, a true sense. It is over so quickly and before one can marvel at it, the guilt and terror washes over like waves in a storm. It's relatively refreshing, albeit downright sickening, to see a film that can still shock the hell out of what is thought to be a desensitized generation.

That being said, one must remember that an author, poet, director etc. NEVER has the final say on what a book, poem or film's meaning is or what its symbols or set pieces are about. Each person in turn must have his or her take on the medium. I'd like to close with my final and wholly overriding thought concerning "A History of Violence": It is a film which I desperately wish to see again but equally compelling is the urge to never, ever see it again. Never have such strong yet equally conflicting views about something so trivial as a film entered my psyche.

The rating of 10 is based on my personal experience with the film, not necessarily the merit of the film itself.

You may interpret that as you will.

Summary: An Unsettling Film Which Defies Description (nearly).

---- JOYA ----

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