A History of Violence

Title: A History of Violence
Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt
Year: 2005
MPAA: Rated R for strong brutal violence, graphic sexuality, nudity, language and some drug use.
Date of Review: May 24, 2006

Artistic liberty is a tricky thing. When a writer and director approach a piece of work to adapt to film, they must deal with several important facts that can make or break the final product. One of the most important of these facts is that said piece of work probably has a fanbase - whether it's of enormous popularity, or just a cult-like following - and these people want to be pleased. This does not, however, mean an absolute word-for-word adaptation is necessary. In A History of Violence, David Cronenberg has taken several artistic liberties, which add up to a final film that is nearly a complete deviation from the source material (a graphic novel of the same name by Vince Locke and John Wagner), but has crafted his own style and substance into it so effectively, that it stands alone as a masterful piece of filmmaking, and an astute analysis of the violence inherent in human beings.

Viggo Mortensen plays the lead role of Tom Stall, a smalltown family man and well liked member of the community, owning his own diner and building strong friendships with the townsfolk. His life is - by today's standards - dreamy. This lovely life comes crashing down when two hoodlums come into his diner at closing time, demanding money and intent on killing Stall, his staff, and the customers. It is with a swift act of courage - and violence - that Stall fights off and kills the two assailants. He is then thrown into the national media as being a hero of monumental proportions - the type of man people should look up to as the pinnacle of manhood, protecting his family, his friends, and his business. From here, the story takes off and leads the audience through a maze of deceit, emotion, and of course, grisly violence that have become a staple of David Cronenberg's films.

A History of Violence is very much a modern-day Taxi Driver in its message and how it is handled. One who uses violence to kill "bad men" (as they are called numerous times in the film - no doubt intentionally) is toted as being a hero, eliminating the dredges of society and making the world a better place. But what else looms behind the picture-perfect exterior of these so-called heroes? While Cronenberg shows us very gruesome images of incredibly violent acts, it is not for shock value - he asks the audience to think about what they are witnessing on the screen. This is echoed in the surprisingly graphic sex scenes between Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello, which take on two very separate but very strong emotions - that of pure, endearing love, and that of violent, animalistic lust.

While it has been said that the film strays so far from the source material that it should not even share the title, A History of Violence is a stunning film in its own right, and is David Cronenberg's own take on an already controversial story. Locations are changed, names are changed, characters are tweaked and the finale is entirely different, but the film should not be taken as a literal adaptation of the original work. Every performance, from Viggo Mortensen's frighteningly schizophrenic portrayal of Tom Stall, to Maria Bello as his terrified wife and William Hurt's Oscar nominated performance as a Philadelphia mobster, these feel like real people in real a real story. The violence on screen is not stylized with wire-fu, dual-handed gun fights and millions of bullets - it is quick, brutal, and achieves its goal of making the audience uneasy about what is happening, not thrilled by the idea of another bad guy biting the dust.

Cronenberg's A History of Violence may not be as strange as his past works, and is definitely not of the horror genre which he so often works in, but it is without a doubt among his very best work. He has proven himself to be a filmmaker that can cut to the core of humanity in many different ways, and his intensely visual style does nothing by enhance the story. In the recent uproar of comic book adaptations, Cronenberg's name is one that wouldn't be expected to pop up at first, but his entry into this pop culture phenomenon is one of the strongest.

9/10