“A History of Violence” asks a simple question and spends 96 minutes making it complicated. The 2005 crime thriller, directed by David Cronenberg and written by Josh Olson, follows Tom Stall, a quiet diner owner in Millbrook, Indiana, who kills two spree killers to save a waitress. The town calls him a hero. The film calls it a lie.
Trailer, via DC.
The Lie Behind the Hero
Tom is played by Viggo Mortensen, and he sells the quiet life perfectly. Maria Bello plays Edie, his wife, who watches the mask crack around her husband as the truth comes knocking. Ed Harris shows up as Carl Fogarty, a Philadelphia mobster who insists Tom is really Joey Cusack, a former hitman. William Hurt rounds out the cast as Richie Cusack, Joey’s brother, who stalks the family from afar.
The setup is classic Cronenberg: a man of peace who finds his hands bloody. What separates this film from the usual revenge picture is the slow reveal of how Tom got to be Joey, and how much of his present life was built on running from the past.
The Killing That Made Him Famous
The film opens with the diner robbery, and Mortensen makes the violence matter. He kills the robbers with precision, not rage. The town celebrates him. The news picks it up. Then Carl arrives, and the facade starts to peel.
Carl’s visit sets off a chain reaction. Tom’s son Jack runs away. Carl takes Jack hostage. Tom kills two of Carl’s men. Carl shoots him. Jack kills Carl. The sequence moves fast, and the film trusts the audience to follow the chaos without slowing down.
The Marriage Under Pressure
Edie watches everything happen, and she knows more than anyone else. She is the anchor point in a story full of shifting identities. When Tom finally admits to being Joey in the hospital, she responds with a silence that speaks louder than any line of dialogue could.
The film spends its middle stretch building tension between Tom and Edie, between Tom and Jack, and between Tom and the town that now expects him to be a hero. The performances carry this weight, especially Mortensen, who holds the center of the frame even as his character fragments.
What the Film Gets Right
- Mortensen’s performance anchors the film from start to finish.
- The editing keeps the pace tight during the climax.
- The script builds its central twist without giving too much away early.
- Cronenberg directs with restraint, letting the story breathe.
- The supporting cast, led by Harris and Hurt, gives the villains real menace.
“Tom Stall had the perfect life…until he became a hero.”
Where It Falls Short
The film is not perfect. Some scenes feel stretched, particularly the middle portion where Tom and Edie argue about violence and what it means to raise a boy in a world full of bullies. The story is dense enough that a few scenes could have been trimmed without losing meaning.
The film also leans heavily on the audience accepting that Tom’s killing of the two robbers was truly self-defense. The film presents it as unquestionable, and while that framing works, it leaves some viewers wanting more context for why Tom reacted the way he did.
A Final Word
“A History of Violence” is a tight, well-acted crime drama that asks hard questions about identity, violence, and the stories we tell ourselves. It is not a great film, but it is a solid one, and it rewards attention.
The ending, with Edie lying to the sheriff and convincing him to leave, seals the deal. Tom is left alone with his wife and child, having admitted the truth but not yet found a way to live with it.
The film is a quiet masterpiece of genre filmmaking, and it stands as one of the last major Hollywood releases to appear on VHS, a relic of an older age.
Score: 7.2 of 10.
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