A History of Violence
New Line Cinema | Release Date: September 23, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Other films this year will have to sweat bullets to match the explosive power and subversive wit of David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. It slams you like a body punch and then starts messing with your head. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
A masterpiece of indirection and pure visceral thrills, David Cronenberg's latest mindblower, A History of Violence, is the feel-good, feel-bad movie of the year. Read full review
100
USA TodayMike Clark
Violence is in the spirit of the hardest-hitting film noir offerings from the '50s, but far more explicit. It's also in the spirit of the Western. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
This masterpiece, an art film deftly masquerading as a thriller, seems to celebrate small-town pastoralism and critique big-city violence, but this position turns out to be double-edged. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
David Cronenberg's brilliant movie -- without a doubt one of the very best of the year. Read full review
100
Film ThreatMichael Ferraro
This is definitely not your typical Cronenberg. No matter if you either love his cinematic oddities, or if you’re put off by them, watching A History of Violence would prove beneficial. It’s no doubt one of the best films of the year. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's Cronenberg's most mainstream work, and yet it has all the power of his creepiest nightmares. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Cronenberg holds up a mirror, but he leaves it up to us to recoil at what we see. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Cronenberg's movie manages to have its cake and eat it--impersonating an action flick in its staccato mayhem while questioning these violent attractions every step of the way. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A ticking time bomb of a movie, a gripping, incendiary, casually subversive piece of work that marries pulp watchability with larger concerns without skipping a beat. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Although Josh Olson's script was originally based on a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, it has now unmistakably become a Cronenberg movie, and one of his finest. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
A History of Violence poses the right question: Are those who don't study history doomed to repeat it? Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Cronenberg's movie is eerily compelling and darkly humorous. And chilling - to the bone. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Seems deceptively straightforward, coming from a director with Cronenberg's quirky complexity. But think again. This is not a movie about plot, but about character. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
For all the bloodshed, it's fundamentally a cold, cold fable, the icy whisper that turns every happy thing to ash. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The film has the perverse intelligence of Cronenberg's other movies. It's not his best, but it is certainly his most accessible, least stagy work, obeying the laws of chronology and serving up characters whom we recognize as people. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
From its quiet opening sequence to its silent final shot, everything about A History of Violence is deceptive, and deceptively simple. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It's a punchy, straight-up genre picture, a crime drama that might have once starred Charles Bronson or Steven Seagal. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
It ranks high on the Cronenberg scale as one of his more disturbing forays into depravity. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
Clever and fast-paced thriller. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
It turns a hot topic into a pretty cool entertainment--one that satisfies the viewers' need for righteous revenge while leaving them a queasy little question on the way out: Does gun diplomacy make sense only in movies? Or do Americans want it to play out in real life? Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Ed Harris and William Hurt deliver inspired turns as the villains. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A sobering reflection on our culture's attitude toward violence. Read full review
80
EmpireAdam Smith
Cronenberg's best for a long time -- broad and entertaining enough for those unacquainted with the director's work, but layered with the themes of infection and mutation that have defined it. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Ken Tucker
I'd like to hear from some women about the sole scene I didn't buy--Bello getting angry, then super-turned-on when she learns about her calm Tom's tough-guy origins--but otherwise, A History of Violence is a remarkably convincing examination of heroism, hero worship, and the seductive allure of villainy. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
If this all sounds very heavy, well, it is, but it's also very, very funny. Cronenberg may want to say something important about violence, but he's also head over heels for it, ending each gunfight and neck-breaking with a close-up on the victim, blood either pooling behind his head or brains spilling from his face. Big laughs. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Although there's little wrong with the first two-thirds, A History of Violence slides onto a tangential path during its final act, and this misstep reduces the production's overall effectiveness. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It's absorbing and often excruciatingly suspenseful, and it gives Viggo Mortensen a strong, change-of-pace vehicle to follow up his "Lord of the Rings" triumph. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Don't let the slow, deliberate pace fool you. A lot is going on in David Cronenberg's masterful A History of Violence, and you'll miss it if you blink. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Solid entertainment value for the money, but those who think it's saying anything new or profound are kidding themselves. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
But for director David Cronenberg and the commitment of his actors, A History of Violence might have been a cartoony action film. Its origins are in a cartoon, of sorts -- specifically, in a graphic novel, by John Wagner and Vince Locke. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Lack of depth, complexity or strangeness make this a relatively routine entry for the director. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
Over-the-top and shockingly vicious. But what strikes some critics as complexity feels to me like shame--the shame of Cronenberg, an uncompromising director whose bloodshed has always been genuinely horrifying. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
A History of Violence is a hollow story from an empty graphic novel. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
This peculiarly predictable picture has been calculated, or miscalculated, to set up certain expectations, fulfill them, and then do the same thing again, thereby giving us a chance to see what's coming and, at least in theory, be shocked when it actually comes.
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Sometimes junk is junk, no matter how fancy the platter upon which it's served. Which isn't to say A History of Violence is useless junk. It provides a few pleasures and a few giggles; it's a comedy, after all, an action movie in which things unfold at a deadpan pace. Read full review
50
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
This sort of investigation has been done so masterfully by Sam Peckinpah in "The Wild Bunch" and Oliver Stone in "Natural Born Killers" that, in a sternly utilitarian sense, we don't need Cronenberg. He is not, as far as I have seen, in their class. He proves it again in A History of Violence. Read full review
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