A History of Violence

October's been a hell of a month for movie-logging for me (fifteen!) and twelve of those films were released in 2002 or later. I've definitely gone out of my way this month to check out some movies that came out while I was in high school and college, and A History of Violence (the last mainstream movie to get released in VHS) fits right in with so many other recent viewings in that regard. Clocking in at just a hair over ninety minutes, this was no epic movie and the scope was fairly limited. A simple suburban man becomes an overnight hero when he kills two would-be-murderers who try to rob his diner. His actions draw national attention and all of a sudden some mobsters from Philadelphia decide to pay him a visit, forcing him to confront his very dark and violent past. It's no original concept, and nothing you haven't seen before. A gifted assassin or hitman just wants to retire to a simple life with his family, but don't you dare try to goad him out of it or you'll pay the price indeed. Man on Fire and Taken were richer in character development and more violent, respectively, but there's still something so elegantly simple about the much smaller and less meaningful killing frenzy that Viggo Mortensen achieves in the shorter and simpler movie I just enjoyed. It just goes to show that even a sparse - if not exactly minimalist - crime thriller can work very well with the right writing and solid performances. Actually, that last sentence more or less sums up Drive, a newer movie I recently saw in theaters. I'm sure I'll log that one someday because it was too awesome for me not to someday own a copy of on Blu-ray. But A History of Violence was pretty good too. Happy Halloween and good night one and all.