A History of Violence

A History of Violence is a 2005 American action thriller film directed by David Cronenberg and written by Josh Olson. It is an adaptation of the 1997 graphic novel of the same title by John Wagner and Vince Locke. The film stars Viggo Mortensen as the owner of a small-town diner who is thrust into the spotlight after confronting two robbers in self-defense, thus changing his life forever.

The film was in the main competition for the 2005 Palme d'Or. The film was put into limited release in the United States on September 23, 2005, and wide release on September 30, 2005.

William Hurt was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, while Olson was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Los Angeles Times has called it the last major Hollywood film to be released on VHS. Mortensen himself praised it as "one of the best movies [he's] ever been in, if not the best", also declaring it was a "perfect film noir" or "close to perfect".

Plot
Tom Stall is a diner owner who lives in the small (fictional) town of Millbrook, Indiana, with a loving wife Edie, teenage son Jack, and daughter Sarah. One night, two men attempt to rob the restaurant. When a waitress is threatened, Tom deftly kills both robbers with surprising skill and precision. He is hailed as a hero by his family and the townspeople, and the incident makes him a local celebrity. Tom is visited by scarred gangster Carl Fogarty, who alleges that Tom is actually a Philadelphia gangster named Joey Cusack who had dealings with him in the Irish Mob in Philadelphia. Tom vehemently denies this, but Fogarty remains persistent and begins to stalk the Stall family. Under pressure from Fogarty and his newfound fame, Tom's relationships with his family become strained.

Following an argument with his father over the use of violence on a bully at his school, Jack runs away. He is caught by Fogarty, who, with Jack as his hostage, goes with his men to the Stall house and demands that "Joey" return to Philadelphia with them. After the gangsters release Jack, Tom is slow to join them in their car, so they attempt to force him to cooperate. Tom kills the two henchmen with the same precision he used against the robbers, but Fogarty shoots Tom before he can do the same to him. As Fogarty stands over Tom, preparing to kill him, Tom finally drops the façade and admits he is indeed Joey. However, before Fogarty can deliver a coup de grâce, Jack kills Fogarty with a shotgun.

At the hospital, Edie confronts Tom, claiming that while he was attacking Fogarty's men, she saw "the real Joey" that Fogarty was talking about. Tom shocks Edie by admitting that he is actually Joey Cusack, and that he has killed for both money and pleasure. He tells Edie that he ran away from Philadelphia to escape his violent criminal past. This admission deepens the tensions in their marriage.

After Tom gets out of the hospital, Sam, the local sheriff, pays a visit. Sam expresses confusion about everything that has happened. He tells Tom and Edie that these mobsters wouldn't go to all this trouble if they weren't sure they had the right man. Just when Tom is about to confess, Edie lies to Sam, claiming that Tom is who he says he is, and that their family has suffered enough. At a loss for words after Edie breaks down into tears, Sam leaves. Edie and Tom then start slapping and hitting each other, their fight eventually culminating in violent sex on the stairs. Afterward, Edie and Jack continue to further distance themselves from Tom, leaving him isolated. He receives a call from his brother Richie Cusack, who also demands his return to Philadelphia, or else he will come to Indiana to find him. After traveling to meet his brother, Tom learns that the other mobsters whom he had offended in Philadelphia took out their frustrations on Richie, penalizing him financially and delaying his advancement in the organization. Tom offers to make peace, but Richie orders his men to kill his brother. Tom manages to kill most of the guards and escape. As Richie and his last henchman are hunting for him, Tom surprises and kills both of them.

Tom returns home, where the atmosphere is tense and silent as the family sits around the dinner table.

Cast

 Viggo Mortensen as Thomas "Tom"  Stall / Joseph "Joey" Cusack
 Maria Bello as Edie Stall
 Ed Harris as Carl Fogarty
 William Hurt as Richie Cusack
 Ashton Holmes as Jack Stall
 Peter MacNeill as Sheriff Sam Carney
 Stephen McHattie as Leland Jones
 Greg Bryk as Billy Orser
 Kyle Schmid as Bobby
 Sumela Kay as Judy Danvers
 Gerry Quigley as Mick
 Deborah Drakeford as Charlotte
 Heidi Hayes as Sarah Stall
 Aidan Devine as Charles "Charlie" Roarke
 Bill McDonald as Frank Mulligan
 Michelle McCree as Jenny Wyeth
 Ian Matthews as Ruben
 R. D. Reid as Pat
 Morgan Kelly as Bobby's Buddy

Production
Most of the film was shot in Millbrook, Ontario.  The shopping centre scene was shot in Tottenham, Ontario, and the climactic scene was shot at the historic Eaton Hall Mansion, located in King City, Ontario.

Alternate versions
The U.S. and European versions differ on only two fight scenes: one where Tom breaks the nose of one of Fogarty's thugs and one where he stomps on the throat of one of Richie Cusack's thugs. Both scenes display more blood flowing or gushing out of the victims in the European version. In addition, a more pronounced bone-crushing sound effect is used when Tom stomps on the thug's throat.

A deleted scene, known as "Scene 44", features a dream sequence in the diner, where Fogarty tells Tom he will kill him and his family; to which Tom responds by shooting him with his shotgun at close range. He then approaches Fogarty's mangled body, which raises a gun and shoots him.  In the DVD extras' on-set footage, Mortensen suggests Harris should pull the gun from his chest cavity. Cronenberg, while amused by the idea, rejects it for being too self-referential; he cites a sequence in his film Videodrome, in which a character pulls a handgun from a slit in his stomach.

Interpretation
The film's title plays on multiple levels of meaning. Film critic Roger Ebert stated that Cronenberg refers to 3 possibilities:

Release
A History of Violence premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2005, and was released in the United States on September 30 following a successful limited release on September 23, 2005.

Home media
The film was released on DVD and VHS formats on March 14, 2006, and was reported by The Los Angeles Times as being the very last major Hollywood film to be released on VHS.

Reception

Box office
The film started with a limited release in 14 theaters and grossed $515,992 at the box office, averaging $36,856 per theater. A week later, it went on a wide release in 1,340 theaters and grossed $8,103,077 in its opening weekend. During its entire theatrical run, the film grossed $31,504,633 in the United States and $60,334,064 worldwide.

Critical response
The film received widespread acclaim from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 87% based on 215 critics' reviews, with an average rating of 7.87/10. The website's consensus reads, "A History of Violence raises compelling and thoughtful questions about the nature of violence, while representing a return to form for director David Cronenberg in one of his more uncharacteristic pieces." On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 81 out of 100, based on 37 reviews. It was ranked the best film of 2005 in the Village Voice Film Poll. Empire named the film the 448th-greatest film of all time. The French film magazine Cahiers du cinéma ranked the film as 5th place in its list of best films of the decade 2000–2009.

Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers gave the film four stars, highlighting its "explosive power and subversive wit", and lauded David Cronenberg as a "world-class director, at the top of his startlingly creative form". Entertainment Weekly reviewer Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the film an A, concluding that "David Cronenberg's brilliant movie" was "without a doubt one of the very best of the year". Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the film a "mindblower", and noted Cronenberg's "refusal to let us indulge in movie violence without paying a price". Roger Ebert also gave the film a very positive review, observing that "A History of Violence seems deceptively straightforward, coming from a director with Cronenberg's quirky complexity. But think again. This is not a movie about plot, but about character." He gave it 3 and a half stars (out of 4).

In December 2005, it was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual Canada's Top Ten list of the year's best Canadian films.

In his list of best films of the decade, Peter Travers named this , praising director David Cronenberg:

Is Canadian director David Cronenberg the most unsung maverick artist in movies? Bet on it ... Cronenberg knows violence is wired into our DNA. His film showed how we secretly crave what we publicly condemn. This is potent poison for a thriller, and unadulterated, unforgettable Cronenberg.

BBC film critic Mark Kermode named the film the best of 2005.

In 2016, the film was ranked among the 100 greatest films since 2000 in an international critics poll by 177 critics around the world.

Awards and honors

Won
 Danish Film Critics Association (Bodil Award)
 Best American Picture
 Hollywood Legacy Awards
 Writer of the Year (Josh Olson)
 12th Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards
 Top Ten Films – 
 40th Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards
 Best Supporting Actress (Maria Bello)
 31st Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
 Best Supporting Actor (William Hurt)
 40th National Society of Film Critics Awards
 Best Director (David Cronenberg)
 Best Supporting Actor (Ed Harris)
 71st New York Film Critics Circle Awards
 Best Supporting Actor (William Hurt)
 Best Supporting Actress (Maria Bello)
 9th Online Film Critics Society Awards
 Best Director (David Cronenberg)
 Best Picture
 Best Supporting Actress (Maria Bello)
 10th San Diego Film Critics Society Awards
 Best Editing (Ronald Sanders)
 9th Toronto Film Critics Association Awards
 Best Director (David Cronenberg)
 Best Picture
 Village Voice Film Poll
 Best Picture
 Best Director (David Cronenberg)
 7th Best Lead Performance (Viggo Mortensen)
 Best Supporting Performance (Maria Bello)
 5th Best Supporting Performance (William Hurt)
 7th Best Supporting Performance (Ed Harris)
 3rd Best Screenplay (Josh Olson)

Nominations
 78th Academy Awards
 Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published (Josh Olson)
 Best Supporting Actor (William Hurt) – while his role was acclaimed, Hurt was only in the film for eight minutes.
 59th British Academy Film Awards
 Adapted Screenplay (Josh Olson)
 Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics
 Grand Prix
 Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards
 Best Motion Picture Screen Play (Josh Olson)
 USC Scripter Awards
 John Wagner and Vince Locke (authors) and Josh Olson (screenwriter)
 2005 Cannes Film Festival
 Palme d'Or (David Cronenberg)
 63rd Golden Globe Awards
 Best Picture – Drama
 Best Actress – Drama (Maria Bello)
 Gotham Awards
 Best Film (David Cronenberg)
 31st Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
 Best Picture
 Best Director (David Cronenberg)
 9th Online Film Critics Society Awards
 Best Editing (Ronald Sanders)
 Best Screenplay – Adapted (Josh Olson)
 Best Supporting Actor (William Hurt)
 10th Satellite Awards
 Best Picture – Drama
 Best Actor – Drama (Viggo Mortensen)
 Best Supporting Actress – Drama (Maria Bello)
 58th Writers Guild of America Awards
 Best Screenplay – Adapted (Josh Olson)

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to A History of Violence was released on October 11, 2005.

See also

References

External links

 
 
 
 
 

Category:2005 films
Category:American films
Category:German films
Category:English-language films
Category:2000s action thriller films
Category:2000s crime thriller films
Category:American action thriller films
Category:American crime thriller films
Category:Films about the Irish Mob
Category:Films about violence
Category:Films based on Vertigo titles
Category:Films directed by David Cronenberg
Category:Films set in Indiana
Category:Films set in Pennsylvania
Category:Films set in Philadelphia
Category:Films shot in Toronto
Category:Irish-American culture in Philadelphia
Category:Irish-American media
Category:Live-action films based on comics
Category:Films scored by Howard Shore
Category:Fratricide in fiction
Category:Canadian films
Category:American neo-noir films