It Wasn't Me Mister. A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away. (A History of Violence (DVD))

Member Name: kenjohn

Product:	A History of Violence (DVD)
Date:	04/01/08 (129 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting movie from an excellent director.

Disadvantages: Not a lot!

A recent viewing of the new David Cronenberg directed "Eastern Promises" in the cinema prompted me to once again dig out the DVD of his last offering starring Viggo Mortensen, the 2005 crime thriller "A History Of Violence".

In this movie Mortenberg plays Tom Stall, on the surface your
perfect family man, and owner of a small diner in your typical mid-Western American town.

Tom is happily married with a teenage son, but his peaceful existence is brought to an abrupt end when two psychotic hillbillies attempt to rob his restaurant. Tom unexpectedly explodes into action, slams a coffee pot into a customer's face, grabs his gun, and coolly and professionally shoots the two would be robbers stone dead!

This makes him somewhat of a local hero, and makes a bit of a splash in the media.

Shortly afterwards some big time gangsters from Philadelphia appear on the scene, led by a hoodlum called Carl Fogerty. (Ed Harris) They accuse Tom of having a shady past and of betraying them and then shooting Fogerty, leaving him for dead.
Tom, of course, being the peace loving family man we know he is (or do we?) completely denies the accusations, and maintains it's a case of mistaken identity.

What I liked about the movie is that it wasn't your typical gangster/ shoot 'em up type action flick. The violence it portrays, while it is very graphic and mostly unexpected, contrasts starkly with what we are being led to expect from a small town restaurant owner.

It shows how violence can affect us all in a very insidious sort of way. This is very convincingly portrayed when Tom Stall's teenage son, a victim of bullying at school, suddenly erupts into a violent rage and ends up putting the said bully into hospital. Tom confronts him about the incident, stating "In this family, we do not solve our problems by hitting people!" To which his son replies "No. We shoot them!", in reference to his father's out of character behaviour during the robbery.

Even Tom's loving wife Edie (Maria Bello) begins to question whether the man she has married and loves heart and soul is all that he seems on the surface, and if there isn't some sort of sadistic monster hiding under the surface.
Cronenberg keeps us guessing right up until the end of the movie as to what Tom's true identity is. Is he the happy family man he would have us believe, or a violent criminal with a shady past?

Cronenberg's movie challenges us all to look at ourselves and our reaction to violence in our lives. He challenges the concept that true innocence even exists, and that we have to recognize the basically violent nature of man and that we are *ALL* capable of reacting as Tom does in the movie given the right set of circumstances and motivation.

The DVD has a few extras. There's a decent little feature about "The Unmaking of Scene 44", a dream sequence from the movie, and why the director felt it had to be edited. There's also a sequence explaining why the USA version and the movie that went out for world wide distribution are somewhat different. (The world wide version is a wee bit longer, and contains a bit more blood and gore.)

There's also the now almost obligatory commentary track from the director himself. I rarely listen to this, as I always feel it's just a tad like gazing at your own navel, and self-indulgence. But hey, each to their own, and it might be that you love listening to this sort of thing.

Currently selling used at Amazon in the UK from £1.45, and new at £8.48. (January 2008)

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Movie Released: 30 September 2005

DVD Released: 20 March 2006

Running Time: 96 minutes

Rated: 18.

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© KenJ January 2008

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Summary: A thoughtful and thought provoking thriller