A History of Violence (New Line Platinum Series) | 
| Director: David Cronenberg
Actors: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Ashton Holmes
Studio: New Line Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
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Rating:  432 reviews
Sales Rank: 5883
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 96 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: TRNDN10095D
UPC: 794043100956
EAN: 0794043100956
ASIN: B000CQLZ0Q
Theatrical Release Date: September 30, 2005
Release Date: March 14, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
On the surface, David Cronenberg may seem an unlikely candidate to direct A History of Violence, but dig deeper and you'll see that he's the right man for the job. As an intellectual seeker of meaning and an avowed believer in Darwinian survival of the fittest, Cronenberg knows that the story of mild-mannered small-town diner proprietor Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is in fact a multilayered examination of inbred human behavior, beginning when Tom's skillful killing of two would-be robbers draws unwanted attention to his idyllic family life in rural Indiana. He's got a loving wife (Maria Bello) and young daughter (Heidi Hayes) who are about to learn things about Tom they hadn't suspected, and a teenage son (Ashton Holmes) who has inherited his father's most prominent survival trait, manifesting itself in ways he never expected. By the time Tom has come into contact with a scarred villain (Ed Harris) and connections that lead him to a half-crazy kingpin (William Hurt, in a spectacular cameo), Cronenberg has plumbed the dark depths of human nature so skillfully that A History of Violence stands well above the graphic novel that inspired it (indeed, Cronenberg was unaware of the source material behind Josh Olson's chilling adaptation). With hard-hitting violence that's as sudden as it is graphically authentic, this is A History of Violence that's worthy of serious study and widespread acclaim. --Jeff Shannon On the DVD
On a single disc and with little fanfare, this DVD makes an excellent case for the best extras of the year. Dive into the one-hour-long documentary and learn more about moviemaking than on many a double-disc. The secret lies in director David Cronenberg's (and his usual crew) folksy casualness in showing off the craft, be it makeup (green screens were used), directing (Cronenberg doesn't storyboard), or art direction (the diner set). It also is very funny to hear about "fish Fridays" and how Maria Bello's Uncle Pete became an influence. Even the infamous sex-on-the-staircase scene is diagnosed with candor as stars Viggo Mortensen and Bello act as if there is no backstage camera. There's only one deleted scene, but it's uncommonly deconstructed on why it was filmed and why it was cut (it's a very Cronenbergian dream sequence). A short bit on Cannes is also a delight. So much is here that Cronenberg's smart commentary track is nearly superfluous. Isn't that a nice surprise? --Doug Thomas More to Explore 
The Graphic Novel | 
Other Graphic Novels that Inspired Movies | 
David Cronenberg Essentials | 
Why We Love Maria Bello | 
The work of Viggo Mortensen | 
The work of William Hurt | Stills from A History of Violence 
Viggo Mortensoe as Tom Stall | 
Ashton Holmes as Jack Stall and Kyle Schmid as Bobby Jordan | 
William Hurt as Richie Cusack | 
Ed Harris as Carl Fogarty and Viggo Mortensen as Tom Stall | 
Maria Bello as Edie Stall | 
Director David Cronenberg |
Product Description
TOM'S IDYLLIC LIFE IS SHATTERED ONE NIGHT WHEN TOM FOILS A VICIOUS ROBBERY IN HIS DINER. HERALDED A HERO, TOM ATTRACTS A NATIONAL MEDIA CIRCUS. AS TOM & HIS FAMILY STRUGGLE TO COPE WITH THEIR CHANGED REALITY, THEY ARE FORCED TO CONFRONT THEIR RELATIONSHIPS & THE DIVISIVE ISSUES WHICH SURFACE AS A RESULT.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 427 more reviews...
 The Killings September 30, 2005
MICHAEL ACUNA (Southern California United States)
36 out of 46 found this review helpful
Director David Cronenberg's movies glisten with a surface sheen that is always perfect. His mise en scene is often pathologically devoid of human connection or touch, though his films are always thought provoking and often scandalous in their grasp of the detritus of our lives. Is there any more beautiful movie than "Dead Ringers?" Any movie as scandalous, off-putting yet compelling as "Crash?" (the version with Rosanna Arquette and Holly Hunter).
In his terrific new film, "A History of Violence" Cronenberg has it both ways: his film features a straight forward plot that he handles with just a slight out-of-kilter quality that adds crunch and bite to the story of a man, Tom Stall (the quintessential strong silent, Gary Cooper-type, Viggo Mortensen) who, when placed in a situation that requires swift and brutal force...vomits out the internal fortitude necessary from deep inside his psyche and bowels to come up with the goods to deal with the situation. "AHOV" then, is about violence, brutality and the far reaching and ever telescoping tentacles that both exhibit as they wreak havoc on Tom, his wife Edie (the luminous Maria Bello) and his family and friends.
Cronenberg is dealing with some lofty and controversial ideas here: Kill someone and forever pay the price for that murder, whether or not the crime is justified or not. Commit violence and that violence colors everything that you are, everything that you do for the rest of your life. Once you take someone's life how much of you, the essence, the soul, the heart of you is gone also?
Viggo Mortensen's Tom Stall is strong of mind and morals, tender, vulnerable, upstanding but ultimately conflicted. Mortensen turns in a shaded performance that not only shows up Tom's soft side but also his malevolent one as well. Maria Bello, usually miss-used in her previous films is a revelation here as Edie: intelligent, accomplished, dedicated and hopelessly in love with Tom but aware that many times being in love doesn't mean you know everything about the object of that love.
"A History of Violence" is Cronenberg's "Vertigo": his version of obsession, violence and retribution told the Cronenbergian way: slanted toward the perverse...bordering on the maniacal. Don't blame Cronenberg because he is not Hitchcock, for he has learned his lessons from the master well. Blame him because he has come up with a film that is provocative and multi-layered though: one as transparent as a silk screen, just slightly out of reach...beckoning us in for a closer, scalpel-like investigation of what makes us tick, the buttons to punch to make us react and the mechanics necessary to allow us to exist.
 Not exactly a big fan of it April 17, 2006
Cloud (Canada)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
David Cronenberg always does films that tend to look at human nature in a different way: sexuality in Crash and changes in personality in the Fly. With this film, he gets into what makes people violent and how far it can go, particularly when it comes to saving family members and loved ones. It's a nice exploration but as a film it really left me cold, with highlights being 2 sex scenes and a couple shots of big violence.
Tom Stall is a family man with 2 kids leaving in a small town. He runs a local diner which one night attracts some criminal attention, which Tom ends up disposing of rather cleanly. It attracts some more attention, this time from local news and including a strange guy with an even stranger eye and tells him that Tom had a much different life than he does now.
While David Lynch likes to make really weird surrealist films, David Cronenberg likes to do films that take a look at transformation and ways people react to things. These 2 will always make interesting movies but I kind of lean towards Cronenberg ones, even though I don't really watch many of them. To me it's a misstep though as the film after it ended didn't really last with me on any level.
Casting is quite solid across the board, including William Hurt, who finally puts in some menace into his "woke up too early" voice. Viggo is always great although he does have this tendency to mumble sometimes and Maria Bello is always good. Ed Harris is effective as a villain, with a very uneasy feeling you get whenever he's around.
As for the violence in the film, it's not incredibly violent. There's a couple of shots that are cringe-inducing such as what happens when you punch someone in the nose a bit too much but it's actually not as violent as you would think. The 2 sex scenes are not that graphic but it's definately not candlelight and blowing curtains, you don't really see much during them but using your imagination they'll get graphic.
After the film was over I remember thinking "what was the point of this one?". Unlike the Fly which was entertaining or Crash which was incredibly erotic in the strangest sense, this doesn't have any kick to it. It's worth a rental but I wouldn't buy it unless it was a gift from someone.
Cronenberg at his masterful best December 25, 2005
A. Sandoc (San Pablo, California United States)
155 out of 213 found this review helpful
What can I say about David Cronenberg's latest work that hasn't already been said by film critics everywhere? My answer to that has to be: not much. A History of Violence will remind people that David Cronenberg is one of the more underappreciated film directors of the last 30 years and also one of its master craftsmen. Using a loose-adaptation (yet echoing some of the book's themes) of the John Wagner and Vince Locke graphic novel of the same name, Cronenberg creates a multi-layered film dissertation about the nature of violence. I will pause for a moment and say that the film also delivers as a taut, gripping, thriller that looks to ape the action-films of blockbusters past, but Cronenberg's skill as a director manages to keep the film above it's B-movie aspirations.
More well-known as the creator of eccentric and unusual fare with legions of fans and admirers in the horror community, David Cronenberg may have his most mainstream and accessible film to date since his remake of The Fly. In A History of Violence Cronenberg's existentialism continues to show as he probes through the dark and shadowy corners of human behavior and instinct. He posits a question of whether people as a whole --- no matter how saintly, well-balanced, and civilized --- secretly revels in the violence they see around them even as they denounce and feel uncomfortable around it. Some have seen this film as something of a historical commentary of the American history and how the nation itself has been shaped by its acceptance of violence and its many repercussions. I would say that those people are not far off the mark, but to compartmentalize Cronenberg's film to such a narrow focus is not fair to the film. Cronenberg deftly shows the brutality of violence and how its effect can be far-reaching and intimite at the same time.
As his past films dealt with the horror of the body politic (Shivers, Crash, The Brood, The Fly) and the nature of reality and existence (Videodrome, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Spider, eXistenZ) Cronenberg continues these themes with this film. Despite the gore and viscera being small in comparison to his past works, History still show the carnage and horror that violent acts can perform on the frail human body. The film also points out that people as a whole deceive themselves of the true world around them in order to hold onto the ideal and the quaint. This is really put forward by the dynamic interaction between the character of Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) and his wife Edie (Maria Bello) from beginning to end. It is a testament to the excellent performances by both these actors that the audience truly believe and care for their characters on-screen. I'll have to say that this is Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello's best work to date and it would be criminal of the industry not to reward them in some way come awards season. The chemistry between these two performers is genuine, searing and very intimate. The very last can be seen in graphic detail in the two scenes of sex between the characters. One in the beginning is naughtily playful and shows how much in love the two characters still are and the second being more brutal and primal as the hidden layers of each character is slowly peeled away to show whats been hidden all along.
For an art-film masquerading as an action-thriller, A History of Violence is very deliberate in setting up each violent outburst. There's an underlying dread that permeates through each set-up. We know that something is about to happen, but its not rushed and gradually builds-up until something has to break. The violence is not your stereotypical action sequence that looks staged, but comes and goes quickly with the brutality and lethality of reality. In fact, the violence has the feel of being very intimate. Everything is up close and personal. Nothing is done from a distance and each strike and violent act painful to see, yet in all instances each scene also gets a rousing response from the audience. This is particularly evident in a scene concerning Tom Stall's teenage son dealing with a particular high school bully in brutal fashion. Everyone in this film is touched by violence in some way or another. From the very young to the very old. The final scene at the dinner table is both haunting and familiar. With all that has been going on through Tom's life and that of his family there's a sense of acceptance of the violent genie that was unleashed in the beginning and one of "life must go on" mentality.
I must say that A History of Violence has to be one of the best films I've seen since I've been watching them. For a film that is really just a revenge-thriller similar to Chan-wook Park's Oldboy, Cronenberg's latest has so many layers and depth to it that anyone who sees it are going to be tempted to talk about its themes and subtext lon after they've left the theater. Where Oldboy is like a hard kick in the gut then a devastation stomp on the neck, A History of Violence is more insidious, intimate and subversive --- like a sharp papercut just beneath the fingernail that lingers and tells one that its going to be there for awhile and there to stay. Some may end up not liking the film due to its deliberate nature or not having enough people dying in elaborately staged action sequences, but that will only show exactly what Cronenberg has been trying to show. That people nowadays have been so inured and desensitized by violence that we've come to accept it as entertainment and actually have come to yearn and need it like a drug-addict looking for their next hit. One of the best films of 2005, if not one of the best in the past decade.
 Everyone has something to hide. December 11, 2005
Puzzle box (Kuwait)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
David Cronenberg's A history of violence is a film about Tom Stall played by Viggo Mortensen a nice family man who works at a diner in his small town in Indiana, he has a wife played by Maria Bello and a young daughter and teenage son who all live a quite and peaceful life that is untill a bunch of murderous thugs end up causing havoc by threatening to kill everybody there, offcourse this doesn't go to well with Tom and he then starts to defend himself and the others taking the killer's gun and then killing both these guys in a most brutal and vicious manner like a proffesional, soon Tom becomes the town hero much to his surprise and his family who are overwhelmed and excited as news reporters are trying to cover his story.
The story might seem simple but its more complex as Cronenberg gets a deeper look into how a person reacts or is affected by violence and how it causes a chain reaction, when Tom's secret is revealed you will see how his family is affected by this, his son gets an encounter from a bully at school you have to see what happens next which I thought was totaly unexpected.
Tom's whole new life is changed as he tries to deffend his family from a bunch of mobsters led by Ed Harris's charecter who saw him on T.V. As the movie slowly unravels you get the feeling that nothing is right and that the family cannot get back to normal, the violence in the film is more realistic and its not over the top like a cartoon or anime level with blood squirting all over the place like Kill Bill cause I thought it was going to be like that once I found out that Cronenberg was directing this, but the violence is still graphic and brutal especialy when one of the mafia men gets his nose bashed into his face.
The film is both a thriller and a character study as most of the scenes were realy intense although some parts were lame like the love scene on the stairways that went on for to long otherwise I thought it was great and I highly recomend this film especialy if your a David Cronenberg fan since this was one of his best films.
A History of Violence October 5, 2005
Michael Zuffa (Racine, WI United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Tom Stall (Mortensen) is a mild mannered man in a small town. He is a family man, and runs a diner. One day two criminals enter his diner with robbery and rape on their minds. Tom manages to get one of their guns, and kill both of them. Hailed as a hero, the media descends and Tom finds his face on the television. Enter Earl Fogaty (Harris), a thug who thinks he recognizes Tom, only he knows him as Joey Cusack, an ex-killer from Philadelphia. Fogaty comes to see Tom and "out" him for the killer that he believes Tom to be. Tom firmly denied knowing anything about this Joey Cusack and claims to never have seen Fogaty before. Fogaty is unwilling to accept Tom's casual dismissal, and begins to stalk Tom and his family.
"Violence" is an excellent movie. From a solid story to solid acting, "Violence" is top notch on all levels. The story is compelling. The uncertainty of Tom's past keeps the viewer engaged in his plight. The four main actors all give top notch performances. Mortensen gives no clue as to his characters past, portraying Tom as a man living a quiet peaceful life until confronted with violence. Maria Bello is excellent as Tom's wife, who loves and supports her husband. Harris is pure evil and menace as Fogaty. His character is not likeable in the least, and you know that he is not going to leave Tom to live his life peacefully. Finally, William Hurt gives a memorable, and at times, funny performance. You have to wait until the final third of the film to see him, but he steals the scenes he is in.
"Violence" is a must see movie. It will make you think about what makes a person who they are, and how their identity is defined. And, can that change? I highly recommend "A History of Violence".
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