Director
David Cronenberg
Cast
Viggo Mortensen….Tom Stall
Maria Bello….Edie Stall
Ed Harris….Carl Fogarty
William Hurt….Richie Cusack
Ashton Holmes….Jack Stall
Peter MacNeill….Sheriff Sam Carney
Stephen McHattie….Leland Jones
Greg Bryk….William Orser
Sumela Kay….Judy Danvers
Kyle Schmid….Bobby Jordan
Deborah Drakeford….Charlotte
Gerry Quigley….Mick
Heidi Hayes….Sarah Stall
Aidan Devine….Charlie Roarke
Bill MacDonald….Frank Mulligan
The Movie
Over and over last year I heard of the brilliance of A History Of Violence. When listening to people rave about the film they talked about the greatness of the story and the performances given. After watching the movie I think they had one part right: the performances.
Tom Stall runs a diner in a small Indiana town. He has a beautiful wife and two children and seemingly life is all roses for the entire family. His son gets picked on in school but that seems to be a mere side plot that has ramifications towards the end of the film. One day Tom is closing up shop when two men come into the diner to rob it. They draw their guns and appear to be ready to blow a waitress’ head off when Tom springs into action and kills them rather easily.
Tom is all over the news as an American hero and that publicity brings new problems. Carl Fogerty and his henchman pay Tom a visit, calling him Joey Cusack. When Edie tells the men to leave they ask curiously why Tom is so good at killing people. Good question. This brings about the rest of the movie where Tom and his family figure out everything that is brought to their plate. Is Tom this other person? What does his family know? What does his “other family” know? Everything comes together in the end in a very interesting manner. The very end of the movie, while aiming for artistic brilliance, comes off hollow to me personally.
Like I stated above, the performances in the movie are fantastic. Mortensen and Bello have chemistry on screen together that borders on erotic every time they are around each other, even when they aren’t having sex. They bring the suffering, internal and external, of their respective characters to an interesting plateau in the movie.
Now the movie itself, while impressive artistically, is not the great shakes everyone states it is. It is gory and there are some crazy sex scenes, but the “depth” many people spoke about in the script is non-existent to me. This is a story about a man who tries to get away from something and it comes back at him full force. It’s not a stretch and not a terribly well told story. It is certainly not the cinematic experience that was raved about.
Score: 7/10
The Video
1.85:1 Enhanced for Widescreen – The movie looks fantastic, as not only are there no transfer problems, but the art direction gives the movie a big rise.
The Sound
5.1 Dolby Digital – Sounds fine to me.
The Extras
Acts of Violence – This is an 8 part feature that goes through pretty much the parts of the movie where attention was paid to them sticking out in the viewers mind. If you watch this before the movie, you understand the film more and what was attempted.
Scene 44 (Deleted) – This is a scene of Tom having a dream and killing Fogerty. It’s a pretty gruesome death.
The Unmaking of Scene 44 – All the details on Scene 44 and the reason it was cut.
Violence’s History: United States Version vs. International Version – Two scenes in the movie that were shot differently due to the MPAA.
Too Commercial For Cannes – How David Cronenberg really didn’t want the movie to go to Cannes and a pseudo documentary on the build to Cannes and all the pr work the cast and director have to do during the festival.
Trailer – Advertise baby!
Score: 7/10 if only for the Acts of Violence feature. Everything else seemed a little too cliché for a DVD that was billed as such an artistic masterpiece.
