A History of Violence

fryup

Sat down to watch a History of Violence last night and come the end of it i was left bemused

Having watched the trailer i thought this was going to be a quality thought provoking thriller esp with Ed Harris in the line up, but it turned out to be a snuff movie.

Some of the scenes were ridiculous, with dodgy acting and OTT violence.

• He runs all the way from the town to his house with a bad foot (i thought it was a dream he was having)
• His sons gets tough and beats up the bullies yet in the next scene he runs away and cries like a girl when his dad slaps him.
• He blows the brains out of three bad guys on his front lawn never gets arrested
• There's this bizarre borderline rape scene on the staircase
• Then he goes off to the big city to have a showdown with his big bad brother who is laughably hammed up by actor William Hurt.
• and the closing lines.."jesus joey" "jesus richie":rolleyes:
• and then at the end its all "happy familes" again when his daughter sets the table for him

I honestly thought it would be a much better movie than what i saw, and it could have been a better movie if they put a bit of imagination into the storyline instead of going down the snuff movie route.

Richard Dower

Yeah i didn't care much for the movie, pretty crap really [cue 5,000 word rant from Darko with his masters degree in cinema stating how i'm an idiot and this movie is superb in ever way]

Dog Lipstick

Yeah I'd agree that this movie does at times veer towards the ridiculous but I actually did really enjoy it. I'm not sure if it was meant to be rooted in a completely realistic world, as with alot of David Cronenberg's movies they kind of sit in between the realistic and fantasy.

mike65

fryup, the word you are looking for is thought

As for A History For Violence, my only real gripe with it was its oddly linear plot line. There was no second "angle" just one bloke on a simple mission to kill his brother.

ladypip

I thought A history of violence was one of the the worst movies i have ever seen and i've seen brain dead!!!!

KingEnda

I was disappointed with it as well. It started well but ran a bit aground around the time of the ride on the stairs

Will their be a Part 2, he might have a cousin or a sister somewhere?

ziedth

I thought it was good. But then again I didn't expect much from it and I really have to agree about that staircase sex scene its been ages since I saw it but I remember actually saying WTF.

IIRC it was very well received by critics too.

johnny_ultimate

Richard Dower wrote: »

[cue 5,000 word rant from Darko with his masters degree in cinema stating how i'm an idiot and this movie is superb in ever way]

Mod note: Richard stop trying to incite trouble.

ladypip wrote: »

I thought A history of violence was one of the the worst movies i have ever seen and i've seen brain dead!!!!

But Braindead is awesome??!!

Been a while since I've seen it, but I liked it without being in love with it the way some critics were. It takes the standard revenge film and goes far further with the violence and psychology of the protagonist than most would. It's a pretty brutal film, albeit one that could possibly have broken a few more rules along the way. Great performances from Bello and Mortenson though. A good film, but probably not up there with the recent spree of superb South Korean revenge films.

humanji

The key thing to remember is that it's a David Cronenberg movie. Once you take that into account, it's wasier to watch. I actually quite liked it. It has it's faults, but it's a well put together film. It's got a great opening scene.

TheWarrior

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Mod note: Richard stop trying to incite trouble.



But Braindead is awesome??!!

Been a while since I've seen it, but I liked it without being in love with it the way some critics were. It takes the standard revenge film and goes far further with the violence and psychology of the protagonist than most would. It's a pretty brutal film, albeit one that could possibly have broken a few more rules along the way. Great performances from Bello and Mortenson though. A good film, but probably not up there with the recent spree of superb South Korean revenge films.

I've been in love with that woman for longer than I care to remember....

But anyway, I can't remember what year A history of Violence came out but remember it being my film of the year- absolutely loved it.

Fysh

A History Of Violence is an odd one - good without being great, and one of those adaptations that does a good job of taking a patchy set of source material and providing a better version of the same narrative in a different medium.

The problem that both the original comic and the film have is that the premise boils down to "formerly dodgy bloke's past comes back to haunt him, how does this affect his new life?" In the comic,

there's a load of frankly boring and mediocre backstory provided in the second act, and the third act is essentially a more violent and prolonged version of the confrontation that the film ends with

. I thought the choice of changing the film's narrative so that it concludes with Tom effectively giving in to his instincts and using the skills from his violent past to solve the problem, while simultaneously destroying the identity his family knew him under - it's a much more interesting angle for the question, because it acknowledges that violence as a solution brings its own set of consequences and repercussions. In comparison, the comic ending

is a bit too much like an action film, in that there's little sense of how the brutally violent events of the narrative will permanently affect and traumatise the protagonists

.

That being said, I was quite glad to only see the film several years after it was released - it was good, but nothing amazing and certainly not something I'd have marked out for special attention. As johnny_ultimate mentioned, the likes of Oldboy or Sympathy for Mr Vengeance are much more interesting as revenge films, for example.

Sad Professor

It's a film I need to watch again. I originally went to see it thinking it was a realistic and controversial film about violence, which is how many people described it at the time. So I was a bit irked when it went all cartoonish toward the end. I'm not particularly familiar with Cronenberg's work which was probably part of the problem, nor did I know about the film's comic origins.

cosmicfart

*** film, a bit drab, the ending was mishy mashy, quite liked the plot of him been an ex gangster type making a new life for himself but his past catching up to him. Any movie with Ed Harris in is watchable though.

Bodhisopha

Most of you obviously don't get it. Let Ed explain it to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azOWjmfUqVw

fryup

ziedth wrote: »

IIRC it was very well received by critics too.

really...well they must be on drugs or getting brown envelopes in the post from the movie company, cause i can't see how any movie critic worth his salt could give that turkey the thumbs up

ziedth

fryup wrote: »

really...well they must be on drugs or getting brown envelopes in the post from the movie company, cause i can't see how any movie critic worth his salt could give that turkey the thumbs up

Ya I actually think there were allot of 4/5 star reviews at the time.

D1stant

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Most of you obviously don't get it. Let Ed explain it to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azOWjmfUqVw

Wow Imagine the speech if he had won the Oscar

Hank Scorpio

thought this was OK, not much more than that though

Sad Professor

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Most of you obviously don't get it. Let Ed explain it to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azOWjmfUqVw

"Having made his point much more succinctly than his co-star, the discussion continued. Later Mortensen quipped, 'On the set, Ed was only allowed plastic cups.'"

http://www.canada.com/national/features/tiff/story.html?id=36d3a569-39a8-4b00-b7d7-219efde64ffa

SVG

I'm kind of surprised how many people dislike it! I think it's great. I liked how simple and straightforward the plot is- it's like a fable. I love how it looks and how it sounds. Viggo Mortensen is fantastic in it.

It's a while since I've seen the film (so I might have some details wrong) but I think that the stairs scene is important because all the violent acts we've seen up to this might be justifiable but the violence towards his wife here is confirmation that he can be this whole different person, Joey. Everything he did up to this point was to protect himself and his family but when he hurts his wife he is forced to confront his violent side and that's what spurs him to go back east.

William Hurt is king of the hameo though, brohem.

Handsome Bob

fryup wrote: »

bad brother who is laughably hammed up by actor William Hurt.

Those 10 minutes of screen time earned him an oscar nom.

Decuc500

I absolutely love this movie. It's funny, weird, grotesque and very stylish. The violence is very jarring and in-your-face. And Maria Bello is in it, what's not to like?

mikemac

SVG wrote: »

It's a while since I've seen the film (so I might have some details wrong) but I think that the rape scene is important because all the violent acts we've seen up to this might be justifiable but the rape is confirmation that he can be this whole different person, Joey. Everything he did up to this point was to protect himself and his family but when he hurts his wife he is forced to confront his violent side and that's what spurs him to go back east.

On the stairs scene? That was consensual
Never once seemed to be rape in my opinion

edit, I'm happy to be corrected. Just my impression of it and I saw it two months ago

ziedth

IIRC it starts off as a rape but ends up being consensual

SVG

mikemac wrote: »

On the stairs scene? That was consensual
Never once seemed to be rape in my opinion

edit, I'm happy to be corrected. Just my impression of it and I saw it two months ago

It's ages since I've seen it. Does she not try to push him off but he pins her down? I could be remembering it wrong.

Richard Dower

Maria Bello nude........mmmmm

quickbeam

Wow, am surprised at the hate for this film, I thought this was generally a well liked film with critics and public alike.

Personally, I loved it. Great acting, cool story. If it's a little bit weird (though I didn't think it was), it can be put down to being a combination of the director and it's source material.

And the scene on the stairs, definitely wasn't rape. He does get aggresive with her and it looks like it might go that way, but he actually thinks better of it and stops, but she pulls him towards her and it gets going again.

SVG

quickbeam wrote: »

And the scene on the stairs, definitely wasn't rape. He does get aggresive with her and it looks like it might go that way, but he actually thinks better of it and stops, but she pulls him towards her and it gets going again.

Curse my bad memory- I should watch the film again.

Rubik.

How did William Hurt get a best supprting actor Academy Award nomination for his performance in this? - it was laughably OTT nonsense.

Spiderman68

Personally enjoyed. Somewhat 1 dimensional but possible for a guy to suppress his identity if wants new life. A violent bugger though. Sex scene certainly on the edge and any doubts about intent were emphasised by following scene when Bello nursing severe abrasions on her back. All in to passion but this left a lady scarred so left me uncomfortable. Not too long a movie unlike so much of nonsense in cinema currently . Would recommend but certainly wouldn't allow u18 view.

Otis Driftwood

I like this movie.Im a big Cronenberg fan though so maybe that part of it.

Not a patch on Eastern Promises though.

MiloYossarian

The first time I watched it, I didn't really like it. The only reason that I did watch it was because it was getting so much heat from the critics and whatnot.
In that viewing there were a lot of things I found hard to take in, the film itself just seemed, I don't know, awkward.

But it stayed with me. I keep thinking about it, different parts of it over and over again. It almost haunts me. Every so often, before I drift off to sleep, a scene or a shot will pop in to my head and I begin to wonder about it. Every so often, for no reason at all, I'll break into my impression of when Viggo's character breaks and reveals his personality split, 'It was Joey.'

What I'm trying to say is that it had an effect on me, one that I don't really quite understand.

I haven't rewatched it since I saw it in the cinema, I have however caught 10 minutes here, and 10 minutes there.