| | | On 150 Top Ten Lists!|Tom Stall had the perfect life... until he became a hero.
Features: DVD, Platinum Series, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Digital (5.1); Dolby Surround Sound, Audio Commentary, Easter Eggs, Featurettes, Documentary, Deleted Scene, English, Spanish Subtitled
In this thrill-packed actioner, small-town diner owner, Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) finds himself a local hero after he successfully takes down two thugs during an attempted robbery. But his sudden celebrity draws unwanted attention from the outside world, including mobsters Carl Fogarty (Academy Award nominee Ed Harris, A Beautiful Mind) and Richie Cusack (Academy Award winner William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman), who insist that Tom is intricately tied their past. Fogarty begins stalking Stall's wife (Maria Bello, The Cooler) and children, resulting in a bloody standoff in which Tom must protect his family from what is either a case of mistaken identity or a violent past that's finally caught up with him.
"It slams you like a body punch and then starts messing with your head." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"A ticking time bomb of a movie!" Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"Two Thumbs Up!" Ebert & Roeper
"...without a doubt one of the very best of the year." Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"A masterpiece of indirection and pure visceral thrills..." Manohla Dargis, New York Times
"...in the spirit of the hardest-hitting film noir offerings from the '50s, but far more explicit." Mike Clark, USA Today
Editor's Note
Canadian director David Cronenberg, whose impressive oeuvre includes such disparate works as THE DEAD ZONE, THE FLY, DEAD RINGERS, M. BUTTERFLY, and SPIDER, has made what might be the best film of his career with A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. Loosely based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, the movie stars Viggo Mortensen as Tom Stall, a quiet, easygoing family man who runs a diner in a small Indiana town. But when two dangerous criminals come into the restaurant prepared to wreak havoc, Stall turns hero and shoots them both. After Stall's story is blasted all over the media, Philly mobster Carl Fogaty (an excellent Ed Harris) shows up, claiming that Tom is actually former hit man Joey Cusack--and they've got some important business to finish. While Stall insists that Fogaty is mistaken, his family--his wife, Edie (Maria Bello); teenage son, Jack (Ashton Holmes); and young daughter, Sarah (Heidi Hayes)--gets dragged into the danger that constantly threatens to explode. Cronenberg, whose films often deal with the fantastical, the futuristic, and the supernatural, has done a masterly job creating a wholly believable modern world where evil lurks just around the corner. Howard Shore's tense, moody music complements the outstanding acting in a violent, powerful film that is not to be missed.
| Features | Director David Cronenberg Commentary | | Deleted Scene with Director Commentary | | Acts of Violence Documentary | | Easter Eggs | | The Unmakeing of Scene 44 Featurette | | Violence's History: U.S. vs. International Versions Featurette | | Too Commercial for Cannes Featurette |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | A History of Violence - DVD Review By: Chris Barsanti - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 1/30/2009 4:47 PM | |
Those well schooled in the history of cinema (or who’ve just seen a movie or two in their time) cannot help but look at the scenes of idyllic content occupying most of the beginning of A History of Violence without knowing that something bad is coming to bust up this happy family unit. Of course, they’re helped along by the fact that the film opens on a chillingly calm scene – composed almost entirely of one tracking shot – in which a pair of laconic crooks on the lam execute a number of people in a small motel with about as much emotion as they’d use to pick up their dry cleaning....read the full review |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: New Line |
| Release Date: 11/10/2009 |
| Running Time: 96 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 10095 | | UPC: 00794043100956 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen/Standard 1.85:1/1.33:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (2006) | | | British Academy Awards, Josh Olson, Best Screenplay - Adapted | | | Oscar, William Hurt, Best Supporting Actor | | | Oscar, Josh Olson, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published | |
Nominee (2005) | | | Cannes Film Festival, David Cronenberg, Golden Palm | |
Oscar (2006) | | | Josh Olson, Nominee, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published | |
British Academy Awards (2006) | | | Josh Olson, Nominee, Best Screenplay - Adapted | |
Oscar (2006) | | | William Hurt, Nominee, Best Supporting Actor | |
Cannes Film Festival (2005) | | | David Cronenberg, Nominee, Golden Palm |
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| | Professional Reviews | Movieline's Hollywood Life
"Some of the performers -- especially Maria Bello as the hero's wife and Ed Harris as a mysterious stranger -- are gripping." 09/01/2005 p.98Rolling Stone
"The family tableau that ends the film is as chilling and redemptive as anything Cronenberg has ever crafted....You won't know what hit you." 10/06/2005 p.163 Uncut
"Cronenberg plays that pulp-revenge thriller plot with a perfectly pitched straight face throughout..." 10/01/2005 p.134 Entertainment Weekly
"It's about the violence that surpasseth all understanding -- a cataclysm of awful consequence that unfolds with insidious intimacy and a Cronenbergian delight in the animal squish and shock of torn bodies." -- Grade: A 10/07/2005 p.48-49 New York Times
"A masterpiece of indirection and pure visceral thrills, David Cronenberg's latest mindblower, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, is the feel-good, feel-bad movie of the year." 09/23/2005 p.E1-E14 Sight and Sound
"Cronenberg's masterful, intelligent and gripping meta-thriller leaves us pondering about our enduringly perverse desire for alternative realities, in which surrogate violent alter egos run righteously and preposterously amok." 10/01/2005 p.64 USA Today
"[With] a fabulous Ed Harris in Blues Brothers shades as a mutilated Mob smoothie; the best William Hurt in years; and career-topping work by both leads. Always keeping us unbalanced, VIOLENCE finally seems less eccentric than scintillatingly original." 09/23/2005 p.1E Premiere
"[I]t's tight, exciting, and, let's not forget, hilarious." 02/01/2006 p.40 Uncut
Ranked #1 in Uncut's Best Films Of 2005 -- "An heroic mainstream comeback for director David Cronenberg....A modern American masterpiece." 01/01/2006 p.76 Entertainment Weekly
Included in Entertainment Weekly's Top Ten Films Of The Year -- "Right to the last shot, this thrilling, hardheaded movie refuses to draw conclusions....This is the best movie of the year." 12/30/2005 p.119 Los Angeles Times 9 of 10
A ticking time bomb of a movie, a gripping, incendiary, casually subversive piece of work that marries pulp watchability with larger concerns without skipping a beat. - Kenneth Turan
Film Threat 10 of 10
This is definitely not your typical Cronenberg. No matter if you either love his cinematic oddities, or if you're put off by them, watching A History of Violence would prove beneficial. It's no doubt one of the best films of the year. - Michael Ferraro
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