A History of Violence

[roscoegino]

Good performances from Vig and esp. Bello.

Otherwise... a little undercooked. With some unintentional laughs to boot.

[dclary]

It's a very compelling one-sheet. Other than that, I don't know.

[roscoegino]

I will agree that the poster was very well shot. Simple yet imaginative.
Drew you in. Film not quite as good as the early festival reviews would lead one to believe. Worth a look nonetheless.

[RKBentley]

I flipped through the graphic novel it was based on and judging from the trailer and the comic, they kept to the graphic novel as best as they could, almost using it as story boards.

Looks interesting.

[whitenavel]

Nice job from Viggo and Maria Bello.
The kid who played the son was awful and William Hurt was terribly miscast.
I enjoyed the tense first two-thirds of this film but then it fell apart. I did think the very last scene was a nice touch but other than that, the final act took me out of an otherwise compelling film. I just wish it had gone in some other direction. I'm sure this was true to the novel, but IMO it didn't work in the film.

[roscoegino]

I agree about the first two thirds, wn. after that, hurt's character turned it into a black comedy almost. everybody was laughing in the theatre he was so miscast. i already knew viggo had the chops. i didn't think the kid was awful. seemed to me he was just playing an outcast. and bello -- marvelous. i tell ya, halle berry does not get enough credit fior reigniting the full frontal thing among known actresses.

[Kelsey]

Maria Bello is so fantastic. Why don't more people know who she is?

[Animus Zaphodius]

Overall, I was satisfied with this film. Thought the early scenes with Maria and Vigo were a little shaky but got better later on. Cronenberg should do more takes. John... err... William Hurt was dreadful. Joey's skills were a little too good for a mobster, I doubt a Delta soldier could do what he did in Richie's office. Nice use of exit wounds to show the effects of violence.

[blackrooster]

I thought it started off rather compelling, but then it turned into a mostly by the numbers mob movie. When his brother called, I knew that he was going to have to kill everyone in order to go back to the simple life.

I don't understand why so many critics are loving the movie and describing it as a reflection or allegory of violence in society. Yeah, I get the idea that violence must sometimes be used for certain reasons but they're treating it like it's the Second Coming. Am I missing something?

What really shocked me were the two sex scenes. I can't believe that the MPAA let him get with actually showing his head between her legs, flipping her over for a 69, and (later) the violence of the stair sex scene, where the violence actually turned her on.

[Jake Schuster]

There's a lot more to this film than meets the eye. There are gaps--periods of time during which we don't see or hear what he says to his wife, especially just before he leaves for Philly--so that when he returns at the end we realize that his family are all accomplices now. He's changed, and so have they. It's all in the eyes.

It's an intelligent picture which really makes the audience connect the dots in a subtle way.

[whitenavel]

John Hurt was dreadful.

He's not in the film.

[Jake Schuster]

William Hurt was very funny in this. "How do you fvck something like this up?" Good line. Nice little cameo.

[cluckyburger]

saw it today. thought it was pretty great. loved the son, loved william hurt. works on the immediate and metaphoric levels both.

****possible spoilage*****







the turns in the movie are essential to (re)interpreting the first half, including what appears to be bad acting and cheesy triumphant horns celebrating the 'american hero'.

[Evil Elf]

FYI Cronenberg has said he didn't actually read the graphic novel till afterwards, and when he did he realized the script was pretty far from that. He is happy with the result, and the novelist doesn't seem to mind the changes, but I've heard the two stories are quite different.

Have to see it yet, but thought I'd post what I knew. Definitely no stairway 69 in the graphic novel. Not that graphic, I guess.

[ACKward]

The gym class/baseball scene was laughable. Really ridiculous. Fitting, I guess, since it launched the son's transformation, which consistently had my theatre's audience chuckling.

Bello was fantastic. Viggo, close behind.

I loved the quiet aggression - it just pulsed.

[cluckyburger]

The gym class/baseball scene was laughable. Really ridiculous. Fitting, I guess, since it launched the son's transformation, which consistently had my theatre's audience chuckling.

yes, a bad scene but deliberately so.
the whole cheese of the Stall family in the first half of the film is ridiculous taken at face value. that the son makes the leap from clown to aggression is not surprising, given that laughter is a biological remnant of violence, a vestige w/ no apparent purpose.

[peasblossom]

I loved this movie, and I usually hate violent movies, and usually wish sex scenes were cut from early. Actually, the sex scenes still made me wish they had cut from them early, but, there is character/plot development in them, so ... The movie works on many different levels. William Hurt was great, as were most of the cast, esp Viggo. Loved the humor, too!

-Sandy

[Evil Elf]

Viggo's always at his acting best when dealing with violence, whether expressed or repressed. I've got movies of his going back to the eighties, and you can see it even then. Prison is a real stinker, but funny if you like B movies; watch him for the scene in the prison yard with Rhino. It's as if he's two different people, which, in that movie (spoiler!) he is.

Prior to HoV his best role was not Aragorn, but Frank Roberts, in Sean Penn's The Indian Runner, which is another exploration of the nature of violence, and a very good one. I highly recommend it. No question, he was the perfect choice for this.

[roscoegino]

I liked him better in GI Jane.

"Who's not ready?"

[whitenavel]

He was great in a supporting role in Carlito's Way.

[Bad Liver]

There were laughs, but I don't think they were entirely unintentional. This is a movie about how society deals with violence - and that includes the audience. It almost seems to set out to find how many different levels violence can "push your buttons" on - and sometimes violence, even graphic violence - can be funny. One person gets shot in the head, it's tragic - another, it's funny. F'ed up, huh?

And the sex scenes are very important to knowing who the couple are.

I thought it was fantastic. At first, the William Hurt scenes seemed odd and out of place, but thinking about the movie afterwards, it all made perfect sense.

[Dock]

There's a lot more to this film than meets the eye. There are gaps--periods of time during which we don't see or hear what he says to his wife, especially just before he leaves for Philly--so that when he returns at the end we realize that his family are all accomplices now. He's changed, and so have they. It's all in the eyes.

i dont remember him saying anything to his wife before he left. he got a call in the middle of the night and jus got up and left. did i miss something?

[Jake Schuster]

You don't remember it because we weren't shown it. The assumption is either that he told her where he was going or that he just left, and she assumed it was going to get ugly in Philly. The point is that at the end he's accepted back into a family that, save for the little girl, have all become aggressors.

[Dock]

He was great in a supporting role in Carlito's Way.

damn i forgot all about that one. he's done some movies. he's good.

[iembalm]

Watch his Lucifer in The Prophecy, then watch Constantine for the diametrically opposed version from Peter Stormare. I prefer Viggo.

"I can lay you out and fill your mouth with your mother's feces....or we can talk."

Shudder.

[WriteByNight]

Not enough to lay somebody out anymore. Ya gotta get fecal with it.