A History of Violence

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<< WRITING ESSAYS << LITERARY STUDIES << FILM REVIEWS A History of Violence David Cronenberg The title sounds like an analysis rather than a narrative, but this intelligent and beautifully acted film is both. Based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, the action opens with a vignette of two psychopaths about their murderous business in a motel. It then moves to Indiana where Tom Stall runs a diner, deliriously happy to bask in small town American values with a gorgeous wife and two kids. The two psychos roll into the diner. When they try to rape a waitress, Tom shows astonishing skill with a gun in killing them both, thus becoming the archetypal hero. Jack, Tom's son, meanwhile teaches a lesson to his high-school bully exercising skills worthy of his Dad. So far, so much an advert for the National Rifle Association, but then a guy called Fogarty (Ed Harris) with dark glasses, two large side-kicks and only half a face blow into town. Mister Dark Glasses insists that Tom is Joey Cusack, whose mobster brother, Richie, runs much of the crime in Philadelphia. By now Tom's wife (well played by Maria Bello) is alarmed and suspicious as 'Tom' does seem to have displayed some of 'Joey's' characteristics. And when Fogarty and his men try to abduct Joey ( whom we've guessed by now he must be) he shows the fighting skills of a whole SAS regiment in dispatching them, assisted by Jack, more and more a chip off the old block. The action from here on is riveting as Joey seeks briefly to escape his invented new life and go back to his past to achieve, if not redemption, then some sort of absolution and escape. This is very much a film about two glorified but antithetical species of American values: the homespun virtues of hard work, good neighbours and a loving family; pitted against the ultimate individualism of the gangster who rejects all moral convention to seize what he wants. Joey is where they both do battle for his soul, but the film is also a metaphor for the whole American historical experience. A liberal, warm hearted communality is born of early arms bearing virtual gangsterism. We observe how it is Tom's current moral worth which is valued by his friends and family; and how his ruthless background as a killer is not judged too negatively. We see that violence has much, too much, to do with America's past and its present, even adding passion, on one occasion, to Joey and his wife's lovemaking. Viggo Mortenson displays an outstanding emotional range as Tom-Joey, the all-American Dad with the dark but ultimately forgivable past. In the final section of the film William Hurt contributes a delicious cameo as Joey's mobster brother, Richie. © Bill Jones 2006 [more FILM reviews] David Cronenberg, A History of Violence, 2005, Discounts up to 40% at Amazon!
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