A History of Violence

[unclejack]

Okay I finally watched A History of Violence last night and I really liked it, great movie. I wanted to see it because as my interest in Sci Fi has increased over the years I've become a big fam of Cronenberg. I really wanted to see it becauase I didn't really understand the direction he was goin in with this film and with Eastern Promises because those movies on the surface don't appear to be classic Croneneberg. Don't get me wrong, I'm no expert on Cronenberg and I haven't seen all his films, but I think I've seen enough of his most popular ones to kinda have a feel for what he is best known for. He rarely does a film that is "normal" and his movies are always kinda gritty and have an edge to them and I didn't know what that edge was in those two films. Anyway, despite it's mild appearance A History of Violence did still manage to be pretty intense and it had it's moments of graphic violence that distinguish it as a Cronenberg film. I'm pretty interested to know how good Eastern Promises is but I'm sure I won't see it until it comes out on dvd.

[Brigitte]

I saw A History of Violence over the summer and, to contradict the previous post, thought it was drier than the Sahara. It's definitely outside my genre of interest, so that's probably the leading reason I wasn't a big fan, but I honestly didn't think there were very many tense moments (aside from the first few scenes).

[unclejack]

I agree, there weren't that many intense moments, but there were enough for it to make sense that it is indeed a Cronenberg film. It wasn't such a break from his style of filmmaking that it didn't resemble his work at all. I actually didn't find it to be that dry. I admit that it wasn't really what the trailer portrayed it to be because it made it seem like a big action movie which it wasn't. That was what made me wonder why Croenenberg made it. But the focus of the movie wasn't really the action, it was the tension created by the resurrection of Tom Stahl's past. Cronenberg is very rarely typical or predictable in his films.

[Connavar]

I thought it was a great little movie.

Very calm,slow small town like until Stall explodes to become what he was before. Viggo,Ed Harris,Hurt was great in it.

Now i have to se Eastern Promises cause its the same director and Viggo i became a fan of cause this movie.

[Ragnar]

I thought it had the potential to be a truly excellent film & was really looking forward to seeing it but was completely underwhelmed. I just couldn't bring myself to care about the characters at all & the tension & drama of the situation never really convinced me. I'm not sure if that's because of Cronenberg's direction or the fact that Viggo Mortensen seemed to sleepwalk through the entire film.

[KateWalker]

It's another movie based on a graphic novel. (like so many these days)

Read the graphic novel.