A History of Violence Review
by Mark Leeper (mleeper AT optonline DOT net)September 28th, 2005
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: David Cronenberg adapts a graphic novel
into a potent crime film. Viggo Mortensen plays
a peaceful man from a peaceful town who
unwillingly becomes a hero when he outguns some
vicious killers. He tries to shrug it off, but
his publicity brings unwelcome visitors to town.
The plot is really very close to being a 1950s
Western plot warmed over. The film is short and
takes a good long while establishing characters
and getting going. Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4) or
5/10
Movie Westerns never die, it seems. When I previewed A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE a lot of other people thought that this was a cutting-edge film and a minor masterpiece. I thought it was good and entertaining, but it also seemed like it could have been just a 1950s Western brought up to date. Except for the fact that it takes place in the present and the gunslingers are here gangsters, I felt this would have made a standard Western. True story: I said to myself they probably would call it something like "The Fastest Gun Alive." I must have been half-remembering that film because a moment later I realized I had seen a film of that title and that it really did have an almost identical plot. A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE is, intentionally or not, a remake of Russell Rouse's 1956 western THE FASTEST GUN ALIVE. Maybe it is not identical in every detail, but it is a very close match in plot. Viggo Mortensen plays the character previously played by Glenn Ford.
In fact, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE is supposedly not based on that film at all. I have no evidence that director David Cronenberg even knows of that film. Like many films in this period of diminishing box office receipts, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE is based on a graphic novel. In this case the novel in question is by John Wagner and Vince Locke. It may be that this is an archetypal story rediscovered or it may be that Wagner and Locke had seen the film and decided to update it. The social issues of living in a society where law really does not rule are nothing new to cinema; they were just examined in the past in Westerns in which the law had not yet fully come to power.
Viggo Mortensen plays Tom Stall, the mild cook from the local diner. He has an equally docile son Jack (Ashton Holmes) who also will go to just about any ends to avoid a fight. Tom is a bland and very attached to his family. So far there is no real dramatic tension. Then two killers on a spree come into Tom's diner. One holds a gun on Tom while the other attacks the waitress. Tom has only a pot of hot coffee in his hands. That is all he needs. Moments later there are two dead toughs on the floor and Tom has inadvertently become a local hero he really does not want to be. Then he gets his picture in the newspaper. Soon there are more thugs in town including Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris) who insists that Tom is really Joey Cusack a deadly killer from Philadelphia. Eventually Tom will have to face the evil that his heroic act has brought to the town and to him family.
This is a film of strong violence, as the title seems to imply. The sex scenes between Tom and his wife Edie (Maria Bello) are a little tasteless. In one they pretend to be high schoolers having their first sex. That seems a little too Max Bialystock to be taken seriously. As the violence takes more of a hold on Tom their lovemaking becomes more violent is a scene that could almost be rape. William Hurt and Ed Harris are reasonably creepy but do not have much screen time to have a lot of impact.
This is a film with good and bad elements, but the good elements I have been familiar in films for almost half a century. To be blunt I preferred the Glenn Ford version. I expect David Cronenberg to do something with a little more freshness. I rate this a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 5/10.
Mark R. Leeper
[email protected]
Copyright 2005 Mark R. Leeper
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