DVD Tuesday: Viggo's 'Violence' - Xoanon @ 13:45 PST
David Cronenberg's drama of a small town husband and father (Viggo Mortensen) whose small town act of heroism -- saving the patrons of his diner by killing a pair of criminal psychopaths -- reveals his own repressed past as a brutal criminal is one of the best American films of the last year. The film turns the vigilante hero story on its head as it portrays his history of violence as a hibernating virus that emerges like a reflex when his family comes under attack, and shows the reverberations of the revelation through his small town family. Cronenberg directs with a powerful intimacy in scenes both tender and savage and presents violence in brief, shocking scenes like a thundercrack, but always focusing the drama back on to the family. Mortensen creates a man terrified by how easily his capacity for violence re-emerges, Maria Bello is brilliant as the loving wife who finds a man she never knew under her husband's skin, and William Hurt earned an Oscar nomination for a small but memorable role as Mortensen's gangster brother in a relationship that quickly turns into Cain and Abel. Ed Harris, Ashton Holmes, Peter MacNeill and Stephen McHattie co-star. Details: Color, 96 mins, New Line, Widescreen anamorphic, 1.85:1. Supplements: Commentary by director David Cronenberg; Deleted scene with optional commentary by director David Cronenberg; "Acts of Violence" hour-long documentary ; "Violence's History: U.S. vs. International Versions" featurette; "Too Commercial for Cannes" featurette; "The Unmaking of Scene 44" featurette. Audio: English (Dolby Digital 5.1) and English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround). Commentary by director David Cronenberg. Optional Spanish and English subtitles. [Order 'A History of Violence' on Amazon.com Today!]