Movie Review: A History of Violence

A History of Violence, directed by David Cronenberg and adapted to the big screen by Josh Olson from the novel written by John Wagner and Vince Locke, takes a serious look at violence. It inspires questions about survival of the fittest, the challenges of living in peace, and whether or not a rocky past can be forgotten. The movie opens with two crooks of a small hotel who, while checking out, kill every employee and a young girl. As their story develops we find that they are moving from town to town robbing small business owners and killing anyone in their way. They are on a collision course with small diner owner Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen). He is married to a lawyer named Edie Stall (Maria Bello) and has two children, a teenage son struggling with bullies in high school and a young daughter. Tom Stall is known and loved by everyone in town. His life is perfect until the two “bad men” enter his diner one night as it is closing. They brandish weapons and Tom seems willing to comply with any demands they make at first. As it becomes clear that they are out for blood, Tom reacts. With lighting speed and a hint of experience Tom retrieves one of the guns and kills both men. Tom is hailed as a hero in the town but avoids media coverage and makes a strong attempt to return to his “normal” way of life, yet things take another drastic turn as a big time gangster from Philadelphia named Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris) shows up claming to know Tom fro the “good-old-days in Philly” and that Tom is actually a man named Joey. Without spoiling the plot, Carl is very persistent in his belief that Tom is the man he is hunting. This creates many problems in Tom’s small town way of life. This movie is a nice escape from the many Matrix knock-offs we are so used to seeing. The violent scenes are gruesome, but short and realistic. Overall this movie is excellent and will have you on the edge of your seat and leave you questioning the nature of violence.