A History of Violence

One of the best films of 2005. Its mixture of quiet moments and stunning acts of bloodshed combined together to produce a film that mediates upon the nature of violence and the serious effects such actions have upon society.

Closet Mobster Dad

Completely blown away by this movie I never would have dreamed Cronenberg (The " King" of body horror would direct something so good) And that it was originally a graphic novel Plus I like the misdirection and the visual effects and strong storyline Just all in all a great movie

Not bad, but it needed more fleshing out of the backstory, and William Hurt was lousy. I haven't read the comic (or graphic novel, or "sequential art" or whatever the hell they call it nowadays) but I'd bet it feels more complete.

A history of violence is tricky. It's easy to call this a superficial commercial movie. And that is maybe also one of the problems. But if you look closer you can tell it has got something to say. Like the way we look at violence and how selective we are in judging it (the nose!). Yet I found that Cronenberg was trying too hard to settle the all american family in the 1st part and that some emotions were kind of cliché (son who fighs back, the daughter at the end, ..) Some stellar acting though.