..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

A History of Violence

Directed by David Cronenberg
New Line Cinema

Ah, mastery.

Again, David Cronenberg reminds us what movies ought to be, could be, given enough taste, discernment and restless, insistent talent. (Of course, I’m talking about taste, discernment and talent on the part of studio executives, not filmmakers.) A History of Violence is the kind of movie that rewards a second or even third look: an intelligent film, perfectly executed, by one of the best directors working in the English language today. It’s also an acrid critique of violence and vengeance that also works as an edge-of-your-seat drama, a dry comedy, and one more Cronenberg movie that casually, forcefully, illuminates the role of power in sexual relationships. (The violence and sex in this movie are studies in suddenness.)

While his filmography includes chilly, hermetic masterpieces like Spider, the 62-year-old writer-director has made no compromises, and it’ll be intriguing to see if audiences are caught up in this taut, powerful gem, 96 minutes of simply elegant filmmaking. There’ll be much more to write when A History of Violence is released, as well as when his adaptation of Martin Amis’ “London Fields,” is done, supposedly in 2006.

For a clever contrary view, check Mark Peranson’s Cannes report in Cinema Scope magazine: “Where many saw a genre reworking of the auteur’s foremost concerns, I saw a well-made film that ultimately failed to escape the genre’s ideological strictures, the conservative, restorative Fordian Western, where violence is a necessary evil to keep a particular American view of civilization (the small-town nuclear family) intact. If anyone other than Cronenberg had directed the film, would … anyone dare to claim the film a radical critique of family values, irrespective of the fact that Cronenberg isn’t our most radical director, by a long shot? Of course this hypothetic is unanswerable, though the perennial smile on Cronenberg’s face, the camera in his hand throughout press interviews, led me to think the very clever director was in on the joke.”

- Ray Pride