Review of A History of Violence (2005) by Kevin N — 03 Jan 2011

David Cronenberg, the master of psychological and structural disruption, began translating the extremes of violence into their most disturbing potential very recently when he shifted his talents away from the horror genre and into a series of highly realistic dramas; this is his most powerful.

The thing that differentiates him from most other directors with a fascination of violence is that his use of it comes in bursts, and instead of exploiting it until it loses its effect he leaves us with only a brief image or two, enough to just get a foot in the door of our imagination, but from there it gnaws away at our minds until the lasting memory of the action is far more disturbing than its instance in the film.

Here, this experience is held in a few specific instances, but Cronenberg is careful to film all acts of violence- from a school fight to a gunfire massacre- with the same amount of intensity. He is not glorifying violence necessarily but making it alien- turning it into something bizarre and carnivalesque so that we can be simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by it.

Viggo Mortensen is fascinating as Tom Stall; the character is a man who starts genuine, and he is written and played so well that when the accusations begin to fly that he is not who he says he is our immediate reaction is to reject them, no questions asked.

There are no standards in achieving a performance like that- it is something indescribable, and Mortensen pulls it off beautifully. Maria Bello and Ed Harris are also very good, and William Hurt turns in a superbly sadistic performance.

This is a quick and to-the-point study on the animalistic tendencies of the human being. Perhaps more than any other director, Cronenberg challenges us to really think about the nature of violence, and the result is always as stimulating as it is disturbing.