A History of Violence
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A History of Violence is a 2005 American film directed by David Cronenberg, and written by Josh Olson, based on the graphic novel of the same name. The film was released in and features Viggo Mortensen as the owner of a diner who is thrust into the spotlight after killing two robbers in self-defense. Thematic similarities between the film and the works of Sam Peckinpah have been much commented on: in an interview, Cronenberg did not deny this but also emphasized that there were significant differences both in terms of plot and style. Olson has acknowledged the debt the film pays to Peckinpah, especially the film Straw Dogs. He has also cited Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (there is a sly reference to pig farming by William Hurt's character) and the 1947 Jacques Tourneur thriller, Out of the Past (1947).
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Plot
Tom Stall is a local restaurant owner in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana, who lives peacefully with his wife Edie, teenage son Jack, and daughter Sarah. He becomes a local hero when he defends himself, his customers, and his staff from two armed robbers, killing them in the process. After the story receives national attention, several members of the Philadelphia Irish Mafia arrive in town, led by the physically scarred Carl Fogarty. The manipulative Fogarty slyly charges that Tom is really someone named Joey Cusack, the former mob killer who disfigured his face 20 years before in Philadelphia. Tom denies the allegation, and claims he has never been to Philadelphia. Fogarty is persistent though, and he menaces the whole Stall family by his constant presence.
Jack, who has always avoided fighting when bullied at school, now retaliates against his tormentors, perhaps in imitation of his father. He is then kidnapped by the mobsters who offer him back in exchange for his father. Tom kills several of the gangsters in a lightning scuffle, getting shot and nearly killed himself. During the fight, goaded and with nothing left to hide, Tom tells Fogarty "I should have killed you back in Philly," finally admitting that he is Joey Cusack. However, Jack intervenes, saving Tom by shooting Fogarty in the back with a shotgun. His wife begins to suspect the truth, and questions him while visiting him in the hospital. He admits everything, and his family becomes upset and angry that he has lied to them for so many years. When the local sheriff starts to believe the mobsters' claim of Tom's criminal past, Edie defends Tom, saying that the sheriff should stop imagining things.
Some days later, Richie Cusack, Tom's brother and a Philadelphia crime boss, telephones Tom and demands that "Joey" visit him. Tom fears that his brother will not forgive him for having jeopardized Richie's mob career by maiming Fogarty; however, he knows that his family will remain at risk if he does not respond. He drives to Philadelphia to meet his brother at a secluded estate. A clearly drunken Richie describes his terribly mixed feelings at seeing his runaway brother again after so long, but then signals one of his men to garrote him. Tom defends himself by rapidly killing all of Richie's henchmen, and ultimately Richie himself.
Tom then drives home to his family, who are all sitting down to dinner. He receives a silent welcome in a tense atmosphere, where only his daughter can initially make eye-contact with him. The film ends with the implied question of whether or not his family can welcome him back into the fold.
Cast
- Viggo Mortensen as Tom Stall / Joey Cusack
- Maria Bello as Edie Stall
- Ed Harris as Carl Fogerty
- William Hurt as Richie Cusack
- Ashton Holmes as Jack Stall
- Heidi Hayes as Sarah Stall
- Stephen McHattie as Leland Jones
- Greg Bryk as Billy Orser
- Peter MacNeill as Sheriff Sam Carney
Adaptation
The film is loosely based on the original graphic novel. Screenwriter Josh Olson intended from the very beginning to use the original story as a springboard to explore the themes that interested him, and Cronenberg admitted that he did not know the screenplay was an adapted work until he had begun discussing Olson's second draft. The diner scene that sets the story in motion is nearly identical, and the basic cast of characters remains largely unchanged. The particulars of the plot are very different, especially as the story progresses.
The protagonist's name is changed from Tom McKenna to Tom Stall; John Torrino becomes Carl Fogarty, Tom's son Buzz becomes Jack, his daughter Ellie becomes Sarah, and Sheriff Carney's first name changes from Frank to Sam. The town in which the story takes place is changed from River's Bend, Michigan to Millbrook, Indiana, and the origin of the mobsters is changed from Brooklyn to Philadelphia. According to the German press kit, David Cronenberg and screenwriter Josh Olson changed the Italian-sounding names because they did not want the audience to anticipate Tom's Mafia ties too early in the film. In the film's audio commentary, Cronenberg says that Joey and Richie were Italian in Olson's screenplay, which he changed because Viggo Mortensen and William Hurt would not make convincing Italians, and he wanted to keep the film away from "the Sopranos Syndrome."
Much of the story of the graphic novel is a lengthy flashback detailing Tom's falling out with the mob. While the film is completely sequential and makes a brief and vague allusion to the trouble Tom caused as mob member, the graphic novel details at length a heist perpetrated by Tom against the mob. Olson opted to focus on Tom's struggles against his past and his relationship with his family, largely to the exclusion of the details of his falling out with his brother and the Mafia.
The most profound alterations of the original novel's plot concern the character of Richie and his fate. In the comic book, he and Tom are childhood friends; while in the film they are brothers (they were not brothers in Olson's original screenplay; Cronenberg changed them to brothers to give their relationship more resonance). In the novel, Richie is captured by mobsters and mutilated after the incident that sends Tom on the lam: Richie's limbs are cut off and his eye taken out, yet he is still kept alive to be suspended from the ceiling in a harness and tortured for years. During the dramatic climax of the graphic novel Tom comes face to face with Richie, and Tom suffocates him in an act of euthanasia. In the film, Richie is depicted as Tom's brother; he is a mob boss who tries to have Tom killed. However, Tom ultimately overcomes Riche's hencemen, and subsequently kills his brother.
While in the comic, Tom's family is supportive and completely understanding, the film has his loved ones struggle with the startling truth about Tom. The lengthy subplot concerning his son Jack turning to violence after his father's example does not exist in the comic, nor does the emotionally charged fight (and subsequent rough sex on the stairs) between Tom and Edie. In the comic, Edie shoots Torrino, and in the film, Jack shoots Fogarty. The comic concludes with Tom violently defeating the mobsters that haunted him, whereas the film ends with Tom's silent return to his family; a change that drastically shifts the tone of the film towards a more familial focus.
Interpretation
The film's title plays on multiple levels of meaning. Roger Ebert says that David Cronenberg suggests three possibilities: "(1) to a suspect with a long history of violence; (2) to the historical use of violence as a means of settling disputes, and (3) to the innate violence of Darwinian evolution, in which better-adapted organisms replace those less able to cope", with the last as the dominant focus of the film. "I am a complete Darwinian," says Cronenberg, whose new film is in many ways about the survival of the fittest -- at all costs. It should be mentioned, however, that Cronenberg did not come up with the title. That honor belongs to John Wagner.
Thematic similarities between the film and the works of Sam Peckinpah have been much commented on: in an interview, Cronenberg did not deny this but also emphasized that there were significant differences both in terms of plot and style. Olson has acknowledged the debt the film pays to Peckinpah, especially the film Straw Dogs. He has also cited David Peoples' and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (there is a sly reference to pig farming by William Hurt's character) and the 1947 Jacques Tourneur thriller, Out Of The Past.
Critical reception
Besides receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor (William Hurt) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Josh Olson), the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes claims 87% of critics have given the film positive reviews (based on 189 reviews).
