A History of Violence

A History of Violence (2005)

Timing: 1:36 (96 min)

7.165/10
3672

6.922/10
40938

7.4/10
272000

All about film

Video 9

Photo 138

Actors and characters

Release date

2005-09-23

Country

Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, United States

Production

BenderSpink, New Line Cinema, Media I! Filmproduktion München & Company, New Line Productions

Genre

Drama, Thriller, Crime

Budget

$32 000 000

Revenue

$61 477 797

Website

Director

David Cronenberg

Actors

Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Ashton Holmes, Peter MacNeill, Stephen McHattie, Greg Bryk, Kyle Schmid, Sumela Kay
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Chris Bender, J.C. Spink, Cale Boyter, Toby Emmerich, Josh Braun, Kent Alterman, Justis Greene, Roger Kass

Operator

Peter Suschitzky

Composer

Howard Shore

Artist

Audition

Deirdre Bowen

Editing

Ronald Sanders
All team (73)

• Filming of the picture took place in the homeland of director David Cronenberg, in Canada. The town of Millbrook in Ontario province served as the fictional American city of Millbrook, Indiana; scenes of the film taking place in Philadelphia were shot in Toronto.
• One of the most expensive and brutal scenes in the film – Tom Stall’s dream in which he kills Carl Fogarty – was not included in the final cut. The director considered it an inappropriate reference to his previous works. This scene, with commentary from Cronenberg, was included in the DVD release.
• All scenes in Tom’s diner were filmed on a soundstage at 'Toronto Film' studio. Thus, both the diner itself and the street visible through the windows and glass door are all sets.
• David Cronenberg decided to cast Viggo Mortensen in the role of Tom/Joey after seeing him as Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy and in the bonus materials for those films. The director was simply amazed by the discrepancy between the actor’s unassuming appearance in real life and the powerful image of a cold-blooded fighter he created on screen.
• Viggo Mortensen himself purchased much of the props for the diner and the Stall family home during his trip to the American Midwest. This helped him to better understand the essence of his character.
• To master Joey's Philadelphia accent, Viggo Mortensen spent hours talking with Maria Bello's uncle and brother, residents of Philadelphia.
• William Hurt was on set for only 5 days.
• Steven McHattie and Greg Bryk, who played the bandits Leland and Billy, being big fans of the Stanislavski system, independently developed backstories for their characters. According to their version, Leland and Billy are, respectively, uncle and nephew. Leland was released from prison about a year and a half ago, went to visit his family, met Billy, and decided he needed to show him the world.
• On Billy's t-shirt, we see an advertisement for the pool hall "Night Owl." This is a reference to Curtis Hanson's famous crime thriller "L.A. Confidential" (1997), the plot of which revolves around murders in the "Night Owl" cafe.
• The scene in which Billy points a gun at a little girl is a quote from Sergio Leone’s legendary Western "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968). The scene copies the famous episode in which Frank points a revolver at the last surviving member of the McBain clan, also a child, but immediately after that, instead of a train whistle, a piercing scream from the Stollows' daughter is heard.
• In the original screenplay, the gangsters were representatives of Italian-American mafia. However, after Ed Harris and William Hurt were cast as Carl Fogarty and Richie Cusack respectively, David Cronenberg decided to make the gangsters Irish, as he felt that Harris and Hurt would not be able to convincingly play Italians.
• The film is based on the 1997 graphic novel A History of Violence by John Wagner and Vince Locke.
• The number of people killed in the film is 13.
• In the original screenplay, as in the original comic book, Joey and Richie were just old friends. However, David Cronenberg decided to heighten the dramatic tension and make them brothers.
• As is often the case, the American version of the film differs from the international version in having less gore – this specifically concerns two shots: when we see the face of the dying thug Carl Fogarty, whose nose Joey smashed; and when Joey breaks the neck of one of Richie Cusack's thugs with his foot.
• All the scenes in Tom’s diner were filmed on the Toronto Film Studios backlot. Thus, both the diner itself and the street visible through the windows and glass door are sets.
• David Cronenberg decided to cast Viggo Mortensen in the role of Tom/Joey after seeing him as Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and in the supplementary materials to those films. The director was simply amazed by the discrepancy between the actor’s unassuming appearance in real life and the powerful image of a cold-blooded fighter he created on screen.
• On Billy's t-shirt, we see an advertisement for the pool hall "Night Owl." This is a reference to Curtis Hanson's famous neo-noir crime thriller "L.A. Confidential" (1997), whose plot revolves around murders at the "Night Owl" café.
• The episode in which Billy points a gun at a little girl is a quote from Sergio Leone's legendary Western "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968). The scene copies the famous episode in which Frank points a revolver at the last surviving member of the McBain clan, also a child, only immediately afterward, instead of a train whistle, a piercing scream from the Stollows' daughter is heard.