A History of Violence (film)

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A History of Violence
Promotional poster for A History of Violence
Directed by	David Cronenberg
Produced by	Chris Bender JC Spink
Written by	Comic Book: John Wagner Screenplay: Josh Olson
Starring	Viggo Mortensen Maria Bello Ed Harris William Hurt
Music by	Howard Shore
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	September 23, 2005
Running time	96 min.
Language	English
Budget	$32,000,000 (est.)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

A History of Violence is an Academy-Award nominated 2005 film, directed by David Cronenberg. It is based on the graphic novel of the same name by John Wagner. It stars Viggo Mortensen as the owner of a diner who is thrust into the spotlight after killing two robbers in self-defense. The film was put into limited release in the United States on September 23, 2005 and wide-release on September 30, 2005.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Adaptation 4 Interpretation 5 Awards and nominations 6 Trivia 7 Related links 8 External links

[edit] Plot

Tom Stall is a local restaurant owner in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana, who lives in harmony with his wife Edie, teenage son Jack, and daughter Sarah. He becomes a local hero when he defends himself, his customers, and his staff from armed robbers, killing them in the process. After the story receives national attention, several members of the Philadelphia Irish Mafia arrive in town, led by the physically scarred Carl Fogarty. The manipulative Fogarty slyly charges that Tom is really someone named Joey Cusack, the man who disfigured his face 20 years before in Philadelphia. Tom denies the allegation, and claims he has never even been to Philadelphia. Fogarty is persistent though, and he menaces the whole Stall family by his constant presence.

Jack, who has always avoided fighting when bullied at school, now retaliates against his tormentors, perhaps in imitation of his father. He is then kidnapped by the mobsters who offer him back in exchange for his father. But Tom kills several of the gangsters in a lightning scuffle, getting shot and nearly killed himself. During the fight, goaded and with nothing left to hide, Tom tells Fogarty "I really should have killed you in Philadelphia", finally admitting that he is Joey Cusack. However, Jack intervenes, saving Tom by shotgunning Fogarty in the back. His wife begins to suspect the truth, and questions him while visiting him in the hospital. He admits everything, and his family becomes upset and angry that he has lied to them for so many years. But when the sheriff starts to believe the mobsters' claim of Tom's criminal past, Edie defends Tom, saying that the sheriff should stop imagining things.

Some days later, Richie Cusack, Tom's brother and a Philadelphia crime boss, telephones Tom and demands that "Joey" visit him. Tom fears that his brother will not forgive him, but knows that his family will remain at risk if he does not respond. He drives to Philadelphia to meet his brother at a secluded estate. Richie describes his terribly mixed feelings at seeing his runaway brother again after so long, but then signals one of his men to garrote him. There follows a surprisingly quick sequence in which Tom defends himself by rapidly killing all of Richie's henchmen, and lastly Richie himself.

Tom then drives home to his family, who are all sitting down to dinner. He receives a silent welcome in a tense atmosphere. The film ends with the subtle question of their ultimate reaction.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Viggo Mortensen	Tom Stall / Joey Cusack
Maria Bello	Edie Stall
Ed Harris	Carl Fogerty
William Hurt	Richie Cusack
Ashton Holmes	Jack Stall
Heidi Hayes	Sarah Stall
Stephen McHattie	Leland Jones
Greg Bryk	Billy Orser
Peter MacNeill	Sheriff Sam Carney

[edit] Adaptation

The film is only loosely based on the original graphic novel. Screenwriter Josh Olson intended from the very beginning to use the original story as a springboard to explore the themes that interested him, and Cronenberg admitted that he did not even know the screenplay was an adapted work until he had seen Olson through several drafts. The diner scene that sets the story in motion is nearly identical, and the basic cast of characters remains largely unchanged. But the particulars of the plot are very different, especially as the story progresses.

The protagonist's name is changed from Tom McKenna to Tom Stall; John Torrino becomes Carl Fogarty, Tom's son Buzz becomes Jack, his daughter Ellie becomes Sarah, and Sheriff Carney's first name goes from Frank to Sam. The town in which the story takes place is changed from River's Bend, Michigan to Millbrook, Indiana, and the origin of the mobsters is changed from Brooklyn to Philadelphia. According to the German press kit, David Cronenberg and screenwriter Josh Olson changed the Italian-sounding names because they did not want the audience to anticipate Tom's Mafia ties too early in the film. In the film's audio commentary, Cronenberg says that Joey and Richie were Italian in Olson's screenplay, which he changed because Viggo Mortensen and William Hurt would not make convincing Italians, and he wanted to keep the film away from "the Sopranos Syndrome."

Much of the story of the graphic novel is a lengthy flashback detailing Tom's falling out with the mob. While the film is completely sequential and makes only a brief and vague allusion to the trouble Tom caused as mob member, the graphic novel details at length a heist perpetrated by Tom against the mob. Olson and Cronenberg opted to focus on Tom's struggles against his past and his relationship with his family, largely to the exclusion of the details of his falling out with his brother and the Mafia.

The most profound alterations of the original novel's plot concern the character of Richie and his fate. In the comic book, he and Tom are childhood friends; while in the film they are brothers (they weren't brothers in Olson's original screenplay; Cronenberg changed them to brothers to give their relationship more resonance). In the novel, Richie is captured by mobsters and mutilated after the incident that sends Tom on the lam: Richie's limbs are cut off and his eye taken out, yet he is still kept alive to be suspended from the ceiling in a harness and tortured for years. During the dramatic climax of the graphic novel Tom comes face to face with Richie, and Tom suffocates him in an act of mercy. In the film, Richie is Tom's brother, and a mob boss who tries to have Tom killed only to be shot in retaliation.

While in the comic, Tom's family is supportive and completely understanding, the film has his loved ones struggle with the startling truth about Tom. The lengthy subplot concerning his son Jack turning to violence after his father's example did not exist in the comic, nor does the emotionally charged fight (and subsequent rough sex on the stairs) between Tom and Edie. In the comic, Torrino is shot by Edie, but in the film, Fogarty is killed by Jack. The comic concludes with Tom violently defeating the mobsters that haunted him, whereas the film ends with Tom's silent return to his family; a change that drastically shifts the tone of the film.

[edit] Interpretation

The film's title plays on multiple levels of meaning. David Cronenberg suggests three possibilities: "(1) to a suspect with a long history of violence; (2) to the historical use of violence as a means of settling disputes, and (3) to the innate violence of Darwinian evolution, in which better-adapted organisms replace those less able to cope", with the last as the dominant focus of the film.^{[citation needed]}

The film plays upon the themes of the harm and necessity of violence. Tom, the seemingly mild mannered diner owner, survives the initial attack because he kills the perpetrators - the very instincts that he attempted to subdue save his life in this and later instances. Attempts at intimidation do not deter him, and firepower does not intimidate him. The film implicitly suggests that Tom has an instinctive, virtuosic ability to act with violence. His son, too, turns from pacifism to pre-emptive violence in self-defense.

Thematic similarities between the film and the works of Sam Peckinpah have been much commented on: in an interview, Cronenberg did not deny this but also emphasized that there were significant differences both in terms of plot and style.^{[citation needed]}

The plot of A History of Violence also shares similarities with the classic 1947 film noir Out of the Past, in that they both feature as protagonists an ex-criminal who has renounced his seedy past in an attempt to become a well-adjusted, inconspicuous everyday person, but who is thwarted by figures from his past life returning to settle unfinished business.

[edit] Awards and nominations

• Academy Awards
  • Nominated - Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published (Josh Olson)
  • Nominated - Best Supporting Actor (William Hurt) It should be noted that while his role was acclaimed, Hurt was only in the film for eight minutes.
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts
  • Nominated - Adapted Screenplay (Josh Olson)
• Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards
  • Nominated - Best Motion Picture Screen Play (Josh Olson)
• USC Scripter Awards
  • Nominated - John Wagner and Vince Locke, authors, and Josh Olson, screenwriter
• Cannes Film Festival
  • Nominated - Golden Palm (David Cronenberg)
• Hollywood Legacy Awards
  • Won - Writer of the Year (Josh Olson)
• Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics
  • Top Ten Films
• Golden Globes
  • Nominated - Best Motion Picture (Drama)
  • Nominated - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) (Maria Bello)
• Gotham Awards
  • Nominated - Best Film (David Cronenberg)
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association
  • Runner-up - Best Picture
  • Runner-up - Best Director (David Cronenberg)
  • Won - Best Supporting Actor (William Hurt)
• National Society of Film Critics
  • Won - Best Director (David Cronenberg)
  • Won - Best Supporting Actor (Ed Harris)
• New York Film Critics Circle
  • Won - Best Supporting Actor (William Hurt)
  • Won - Best Supporting Actress (Maria Bello)
• Satellite Awards
  • Nominated - Outstanding Motion Picture, Drama
  • Nominated - Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama (Viggo Mortensen)
  • Nominated - Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role, Drama (Maria Bello)
• Toronto Film Critics
  • Won - Best Picture
  • Won - Best Director (David Cronenberg)
• Danish Film Critics Association (Bodil Award)
  • Won - Best American Picture

[edit] Trivia

• When Viggo Mortensen's character Tom Stalls goes to work at the diner for the first time in the film the town's clock tower shows that it is 1:15, although it is clearly meant to be the start of the day because people greet him by saying 'good morning'. (the director points this out during the commentary, and claims that the clock in Millbrook has been broken for several years)
• Most of the film was shot in Millbrook, Ontario, Canada [1].

[edit] Related links

• A History of Violence (graphic novel)

[edit] External links

• Official site
• A History of Violence at the Internet Movie Database
• A History of Violence at Rotten Tomatoes
• A History of Violence at Metacritic
• A History of Violence at Box Office Mojo