A History of Violence (2005)

Highly Recommended

USA/Germany

Feature Film
Director: David Cronenberg
Writers: Josh Olson, Vince Locke, John Wagner
Cinematographer: Peter Suschitzky
Composer: Howard Shore
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Ashton Holmes, Peter MacNeill, Stephen McHattie, Greg Bryk, Kyle Schmid

When a pair of psychotic thieves attempt to rob a family-owned diner in a small American town, the quiet, mild-mannered proprietor leaps into action and kills the two of them, and in the process becomes a media hero, but when a group of Philadelphia mobsters arrive in town asking some awkward questions, the family man’s history of violence gradually comes to light, in Cronenberg’s expertly crafted examination of violence and its effects upon the inflictor and those around them. Iain.Stott