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A History of Violence (18+, 96mins)
In 2005, Canadian director David Cronenberg was still best known for visceral and gore-drenched body-horrors.
Cronenberg’s most successful brush with the mainstream had been his hugely influential remake of The Fly in 1986. Naked Lunch, eXistenZ, Crash and Dead Ringers had all been festival hits, but there wasn’t much on Cronenberg’s CV that hinted he was about to reinvent the American crime-drama for all time.
A History of Violence stormed the box-office in 2005. It is a superficially simple film, with an easy-to-follow narrative about a small-town diner owner who may actually be an ex-gangster living undercover. When Tom becomes a local hero for violently foiling an attempted robbery, the TV coverage alerts his old employers that Tom is still alive and where he and his family can be found.
What follows is brutal, but brilliantly done. Cronenberg and star Viggo Mortensen aren’t interested in just making a violent thriller here. A History of Violence is a human and credible film that just happens to feature people who are capable of murder, as they come up against each other.
Co-stars Maria Bello, as wife Edie, a chilling Ed Harris as Tom’s nemesis and a cast-against-type William Hurt – are all beyond praise.
Supplied
Viggo Mortensen plays small-town diner owner Tom Stall in A History of Violence.
A History of Violence is one of the key films of the first decade of the 21st century. It proved – as maybe Scorsese and others had in the 1970s – that a massively violent film with a high body count could still be a credible adult drama.
Cronenberg and Mortensen collaborated again in 2007 on Eastern Promises, with maybe even better results.
A History of Violence begins streaming on Netflix on the evening of June 7.
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