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BillyJackToad


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15/06/2008

11:17: BillyJackToad reviewed with the review

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It Does What It Says On The Tin , 15 June 2008

A History of Violence (2005)
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt
Director: David Cronenberg
Certificate:
Simply one of the best films Ive seen and certainly for a long long time.
Film watching is often about your expectations and setting, not always about absolute top quality and this may be true for me here.
Dont we all dream of taking a punt, walking in off the street (usually to a pretty empty afternoon showing) and sitting mesmerised:well I didnt know what to expect about the quality of A History of Violence and there wasnt much on the TV Saturday night, so I put on this DVD.
I was gripped from start to finish;so many twists and turns;so much tension building with the threat of violence;so many satisfactory outcomes.
Too often American action films dont do it for me - The Bourne Trilogy, The Mission Impossible nonsense, The Spidermans and other superheroes, but this is different, slow, steady, understated, sleepy American small town life, potentially destroyed by truly bad guys.
The casting is great, the performances excellent, the direction paced beautifully and a script you never notice, its that good.
Its thought-provoking:how violence breeds violence and once started, the chain is so hard to break.
The problems of the father are echoed in the son's circumstances and without giving too much away, the resolution of those problems was, for me, deeply satisfying.
I was reminded of so many films and genres, but what I kept coming back to was the gunfighter who cant leave his past behind - his history of violence will not let him alone.
The biggest compliment is that the film seemed to be a respectful homage to my undoubted 'best film of all time' - Unforgiven -. Clint won all the oscars for his masterpiece and I never tire of watching it. A man with a terrible past desperately trying to forget who he was.Events conspire to bring back his old self in a manner which is hardly moral but hugely engaging. 1 out of 2 people found this review helpful

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