A History Of Violence

A History of Violence (2005)

Runtime: 97 minutes

Directed by: David Cronenberg

Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, Ashton Holmes, William Hurt (RIP)

From: New Line Cinema

If it's not appropriate to say “RIP William Hurt”, then I'll wish a happy belated 69th birthday to David Cronenberg. I put it that way as while Hurt was a great actor and while I've only talked here about the movies I've seen of his... there is a big caveat. As was trending on Twitter Sunday night, there was the accusations that ex-girlfriend Marlee Matlin made back in the day. According to her, not only was he abusive, but he did something pretty vile late one night while heavily intoxicated. Even though he later apologized for his behavior and there sadly are many entertainers that have done vile things in their lives, I'm still all “dammit” concerning this situation.

While David Cronenberg has made some messed-up movies that contain disturbing content (this has some rather graphic moments), the man himself I've never heard anything that would cause people to “cancel” him. Thus, I'll say “happy birthday” to the man that turned 69 (nice) three days ago. Speaking of 69... but no spoilers.

Turns out, Hurt only has a small yet pivotal role in this picture; what a the memorable-if improbable at times-story and thank heavens Viggo Mortensen & Maria Bello delivered w/ quality performances. They plays parents in a bucolic small Indiana town full of friendly good folk-from my childhood growing up in the Midwest I know this to be true. They are nice people too—although they could also be referred to as “squares”. It's an upheaval when two murderous bastards on a killing spree end up in town and once they stop at the family diner & threaten death, Viggo turns into John Wick. When a few members of the Irish Mob show up, could he possibly be a retired mob hitman who's assumed a new identity long ago?

BTW, I had no idea this featured the Irish Mob; it was not my intent to imply a cruel dig on St. Patrick's Day! After all, a small part of my heritage is Irish.

Small quibbles aside, it was quite the compelling story which is punctuated by some rather gruesome moments (not a surprise given the title of the film) and while we don't see how Ed Harris lost his eye, the incident is described and yikes. The lead family being such nice folks and the town being so quaint made the invasion of bad guys all the more jarring & even heartbreaking. As already mentioned, the lead performances being so good was a huge asset in making this deceptively straightforward film from the director such a rewarding journey. The tight 96 minute runtime was appreciated by me, even if I wouldn't have minded a subplot or two being fleshed out. A quiet opening which concludes with a major jolt-an example of how well this handled suspense scenes-and an excellent wordless ending help cement my opinion that this was very good. Later in the year I'll watch the other Mortensen/Cronenberg collaboration in full; just by happenstance the only scene from that I've watched before is the most infamous one... you know what I mean.