message in the movies By Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

            
A History of Violence  Rated R
Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello.

Photo © Copyright New Line Cinema
A few decades ago, when adults started taking comic books out of the hands of children and calling them “graphic novels”, innocence was forever lost.  While many of these new-form comics have made outstanding films (“Road to Perdition”, “American Splendor” and “Ghost World” come to mind), there is a nasty, dark side to the graphic novel culture that produced last year’s decadent “Sin City” and this year’s “A History of Violence”.  Canadian cult director Cronenberg does not film this story as a comic book, but gives it a style and atmosphere that is consistent with his earlier films, and it is loaded with terrific performances from his cast, including a small but droll turn from William Hurt in the final reel.  And yet – this film is so morally reprehensible that I must warn you away from it.  Cronenberg, in speaking of this film, calls himself a dedicated Darwinist and offers this story as a bold testimony to survival of the fittest.  Tom Stall (Mortensen) is a midwestern diner owner who lives a peaceful and average life with his wife (Bello) and teenage son. One day, when two thugs enter the restaurant at closing time and threaten to rob, kill and possibly rape whoever gets in their way, Tom springs into action and attacks, killing both of the criminals.  Tom becomes a local hero and enjoys a brief period of fame before a mysterious figure comes to town and begins to question everything about Tom’s act of bravery.  The American Dream, according to the thesis of this film, is built on a foundation of nothing more than self-preservation.  Intellectually, I find this to be an interesting worldview that stands in opposition to faith and hope in a moral universe.  But A History of Violence is cobbled not only with an underdeveloped backstory (on which everything more or less depends) but also with strong scenes of sex and violence that shock without any particular redeeming value.  But, that’s the point of the film, I guess.  I’m not quite ready to despair of the human condition yet, although a few more movies like this one might just persuade me.

Pitchfork Rating: No halos. (This bleak and pointless celebration of retaliatory violence, while sometimes stylish, is more often just shockingly offensive.)    Five pitchforks (Very graphic violence, very graphic sex, very graphic nudity, and some drug use and obscenities, too.)

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