A History of Violence
David Cronenberg’s meditation on the consequences of violence is Up Against The Wall’s Disc of The Month.
Review by Philip Nutman
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE was greeted with rave reviews on its theatrical release last year and made it onto over 150 critics’ top 10 lists. Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment Weekly named it “best movie of the year,” a sentiment shared wholeheartedly by this reviewer. Unfortunately, AHOV didn’t set the box office aflame, and although it was released in late September, most members of the Academy seem to have short memories and come Oscar™ nomination time, had forgotten just how good it was. Or perhaps this movie asked hard questions Hollywood didn’t want to face – questions about truth, personal responsibility and, ultimately, accountability – preferring politically safe “liberal” subjects like gay cowboys and racism in Los Angeles. Then again, maybe closet homosexuality and the class/race divisions in California touched a nerve with those Hollywoodians who can actually vote for Oscar ™.
Much has been written about how the film should have been nominated for Best Picture, David Cronenberg for Best Director and Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello as Best Actor and Actress respectively. They weren’t. Instead, wordsmith Josh Olson was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, and William Hurt received the nomination for Best Supporting Actor – seemingly strange, almost token choices which implied the Academy was acknowledging Cronenberg’s vision, but had no intention of rewarding the Canadian who had made movies about sexual parasites, blood-lusting crazies and externally born mutants, and had a character’s head explode within the first five minutes of the movie SCANNERS [1980] (and let’s not forget James Woods developing a vaginal slit in his stomach and proceeding to copulate with himself, using the phallic barrel of the gun now merging into his right hand to penetrate with in the hallucinatory, transgressive VIDEODROME [1983]). No, heavens to Betsy. We can’t give that guy a real Oscar ™! Ironically, the nominations given were for what could be considered the weakest elements in the film (although not having read either the screenplay or the graphic novel, I can’t evaluate, but in the supplemental features and in his commentary, Cronenberg claims responsibility for several key scenes that weren’t in earlier drafts of the script; and since Mortensen’s, Bello’s and Harris’s performances are so subtly nuanced, Hurt’s crime boss comes off as a goofy caricature, at least to this reviewer).
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE has a simple story that is rife with subtext. When two sociopathic criminals (Peter MacNichol and Stephen McHattie) turn up at closing time one night in Tom Stall’s dinner with robbery and murder on their minds, seemingly mild-mannered family man and small town small business owner Stalls (Mortensen) suddenly kills them, saving the lives of his employees. Wounded in his right foot, the local media immediately hail him a hero. Modest to a fault, Stalls shrugs off the adulation, but the results of his handiwork attract national attention, resulting in a visit from a scar-faced, thoroughly creepy man named Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris) and his “associates.” Claiming Stalls is really a gangster named Joey from Philadelphia and responsible for Carl’s facial disfigurement, the outsiders start to terrorize Tom and his family. Is Stalls who he says he is, or has he been living a lie for nearly 20 years? The first act of AHOV winds the clock spring tight, then spirals out with brutal, inevitable certainty (but not without a few character-driven surprises).
Perception is reality and reality is perception – but whose reality and whose perception and how personal experiences shape our lives and inevitably lead to conflict has long been a theme running through Cronenberg’s work. Much has been made, especially in the early days of his career, over the emetic visuals stemming from his fascination with mind/body dualism resulting in “bodily horror.” That element is in evidence here in the brutal, bloody consequences of violence, but two other themes – personal reality, along with his persistent deconstruction of the family unit as a source of drama – are the twin carburetors which have powered the director’s engine since day one. AHOV, then, albeit a seemingly mainstream drama dealing with the repercussions of violent disruption into an apparently stable environment, is Classic Cronenberg: the heart of darkness beats strong in the Midwestern cocoon of simple, Rockwellian “normality,” and transformations will inevitably occur once the social body is infected by the virus of violence. It is a story about relationships – fathers and sons, husbands and wives, brothers – but it can also be seen as a story about America’s relationship with its violent past. In its overall narrative arc, AHOV is a contemporary western. SHANE [1953] it is not, but a mutant descendent? Certainly.
Uniformly, the direction and performances are excellent, as is Peter Suschitzky’s cinematography, which ranges from an understated stylization (the opening four-minute continuous take/tracking shot) to a quiet, classical storytelling through pictures. With such naturalistic (with the exception of Hurt) performances and drama that derive logically from a simple tense situation, both director and cinematographer know less is more. Suschitzky has been Cronenberg’s consistent DP since 1988’s DEAD RINGERS, and clearly they’ve developed an on-set symbiosis that merges their respective strengths.
Like all New Line Platinum DVDs, this is a superb transfer: both image and sound are excellent; Suschitzky’s cinematography shines and Howard Shore’s simple but highly evocative score resonates. The Dolby 5.1 surround mix is subtle but effective with gunshots punching out of your speakers (and you can almost feel the bones breaking...).
The supplemental features are better than average. Cronenberg is an excellent, self-effacing commentarian who is consistently fascinating to listen to, and the 70-minute behind-the-scenes ACTS OF VIOLENCE documentary is just that, a real documentary, not a puff piece cobbled together from the EPK. Three featurettes are included which act as sidebars to the main documentary and range from examining the difference between the U.S. and International versions (a few frames of violence), to a detailed look, with director commentary, on the filming and ultimate deletion of a bloody nightmare sequence, and a candid personal video diary of Cronenberg and his cast’s trip to Cannes and the film’s world premiere.
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE is a film destined to become a classic in the pantheon of early 21st century cinema because it is a story told by a master storyteller that transcends its simple crime melodrama origins to become a true drama which explores the human condition. If you haven’t seen it, rent it. And if you’re building a DVD library of important films, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE belongs there. 
DVD $19.99 at Amazon
Graphic Novel $9.99 at Amazon * Graphic Novel Preview from DC/Vertigo
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE [2005] New Line Cinema. Released on DVD March 14/06
Directed By David Cronenberg. Screenplay By Josh Olson, based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke. Produced By Chris Bender JC Spink. Starring Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt and Ed Harris. 96 Mins. Rated R. Widescreen 1.85:1, 16x9. Dolby 5.1, Dolby 2.0 stereo.
