{"id":48387,"date":"2025-07-31T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=48387"},"modified":"2025-06-28T07:22:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T11:22:43","slug":"a-history-of-violence-2005-comic-book-month-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/31\/a-history-of-violence-2005-comic-book-month-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"A History of Violence (2005) [Comic Book Month 2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A seemingly mundane family man harboring a dark secret must come to terms with his past after his actions to end a robbery at his diner result in the reappearance of an old enemy.<\/p>\n

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Before John Wick and the whole \u201csecretly hiding a dark past of violence\u201d trope became an action movie writers go to plotline, there was A History of Violence, which not only paved the way for these kinds of stories, but also showed us just how violent one could get. It’s brutal, unrelenting, and also does something so few have the balls to do; it gives us the full picture. On top of the displays of violence and mafia activity, we also get to watch as the life and family of the protagonist crumbles to pieces despite his best efforts to hold everything together, and this is where A History of Violence really excels and stands out from the pack.<\/p>\n

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But then this is David Cronenberg we’re talking about, a visionary genius who would be hard pressed to make a bad film, and who puts so much effort into every one of his projects that you can actually feel his dedication to the craft radiating from them. He makes a hell of a show out of Josh Olson\u2019s script, which is adapted from the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, and it somehow captures both sides of the story with ease. Pulling off a violent family drama isn’t easy, but if anybody can do it, it’s Cronenberg. Its grittiness is only rivaled by its attention to the quiet details of family life, and the duality of the story works exceptionally well through Cronenberg\u2019s lens.<\/p>\n

It’s no surprise that he’s chosen to work with Viggo Mortenson several times since this film, either. The two work so well together, it’s palpable through the screen how much they enjoy collaborating on projects. Mortenson gives a powerhouse performance as Tom, the family man who may or may not have been a hitman for the mafia before calling it quits and escaping to suburbia to try to seek some semblance of a normal life. Maria Bello captures the essence of her character phenomenally, playing not only a wife and mother, but an actual realistic depiction of a woman whose life is turned upside down. And Ed Harris is delectably sinister, as he always manages to be, in the role of a man seeking to destroy Tom\u2019s life. My only wish is that the film would’ve turned away from the depiction of rather violent \u201calmost rape\u201d that we get later in the film. It was an unnecessary act against the film\u2019s sole female character, at the hands of the man she trusts, no less, without it ever being used as a statement about how often domestic violence can lead to sexual assault.<\/p>\n

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The practical effects are on point and bloody, something we’ve come to expect from Cronenberg over the years, and are probably the biggest highlight of the film beyond the story, with the entire effects team working together in harmony. It’s darkly lit with deep shadows that dichotomize the bright and sunny suburbs of the opening sequences, too, with major props for the cinematography from Peter Suschitzky. Brought together by a score from the always powerful and amazing Howard Shore, everything falls neatly into place to create the perfect package. It’s everything you could want from a movie like this.<\/p>\n

A History of Violence is a morally gray peek into the life of a hitman who sought to make for a better life, but at what cost? It paints a vivid and dark picture of the underbelly of society as a whole, and brings to mind the question of just how well you really know the people closest to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A seemingly mundane family man harboring a dark secret must come to terms with his past after his actions to end a robbery at his diner result in the reappearance of an old enemy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[221,222,302,1014,1087],"class_list":["post-48387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-comic-book","tag-comic-book-movie","tag-drama","tag-suspense-thriller","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48387"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48479,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48387\/revisions\/48479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}