Absolutely no vote here for me needed. This hands down goes to the Dark Knight.
I have to completely disagree here, having read both the book that's my choice, and having seen the move several times. When combining the amazing book by Vince Locke,
A History of Violence is the right choice here. Allow me to explain.
David Cronenberg's adaptation of Locke's graphic novel places a simple American family man, and his all-American family, into a new and disturbing context which has them questioning everything they think they know. The Dark Knight, for as good of a movie that it was, isn't a movie that leaves you talking about it for some time following seen it, other then the usual fluff talk of how well acted and scripted the movie is.
A History of Violence provides the substance rather then the fluff, which is one of the reasons it should be the choice.
For those unfamilar with the movie, Viggo Mortensen does a great turn as Tom Stall, a seemingly simple man who owns a little diner in a small town and has a nice house on the outskirts of town, where he and his wife Edie, played by Mario Bello live. They go about raising their two children in a way that seems t be their personal adaptation of living the American dream. All of this is shaken one day when two murderers come into his diner at closing time for cherry pie, and to kil Tom in the process. Tom, the mild mannered family man, kills both without blinking in a way that is instinctive to him rather then out of a heroic defense of his diner. Tom becomes a town and national hero, with his picture appearing on CNN at one point.
Where the movie truly takes its turn and marks its brilliance is when Tom retuns to work, and the menacing but mysterous Carl Fogerty(played by Ed Harris) and his henchmen pay Tom a visit at his diner. Harris reveals a disfiguring injury, and claims to know Tom in a past life as Joey Cusack.While Tom denies this, but Carl later pays Tom's wife a visit, leaving her with the simple question of "Why is Tom so good at killing people?" Combining thiswith him easily dispatching the men at his diner, it plants the first seed as to who Tom truly is. Mistaking Tom for someone else, Harris and his crew lingers in the vicinity, threatening Stalls idyllic small town family life.
What really distinguishes this mistaken-identity plot of the type "innocent-man-is-faced-with-violence-and-has-to-act" from other films is the way the movie deconstructs thetypical United States culture of visual violence, and even seduces the audience to embrace that culture as the movie progresses, and truly gets the audience to both embrace and like his characters, in spite of their brutal actions.
In addition, the move carefully takes the viewer on a ride through the total range of human emotions, from love and tenderness to blazing hatred. The movie portrays every possible human relationship, each of which features an aspect of violence at some time. Even the sexual relations are definitively violent. Noone is portrayed as sacred, as it explores this violence between husband and wife, children and their parents, siblings, old friends, and young bullies. Another thing that makes it rise above is that each character is portrayed by an excellent cast that manages to make their characters come realistically to life in spite of the topical story, with the characters moving in parrallel to one another.
Each actor in the movie isn't just a typical charismatic, glamorous star taking care of their image. Each of them embraces their roles completely,nd the vewer is left blieving that's who they truly are, as thy're that convincing. The same could be said of Ledger obviously in the
Dark Knight, but who else? Each character is
A History of Violence embraces said character, a true rarty in movies.
The "is he or isn' he dominates the film, which leaves the viewer on the edge of their seats. Tom's actions, wile forced throughout, truly leave the viewer to come to their own conclusions. The movie even ends with the question left essentially unasnwered, affecting the American dream he had so carefully constructed. William Hurt, playing Tom's brother, was nominated for an Academy Award, as was Mario Bello as Tom's wife. They played their roles to perfection, allowing Mortensen to do the same. The movie certainly had its share of offensive material, but it was portrayed integraly to the plot.No scene was wasted, as every scene truly meant something in telling the story of the film. While there are some great choices on the list, especially Batman begins, there is simply no downtime in the movie, with Tom desperately trying to
seemingly escape his past, yet being drawn back into violence, mistaken identity or not. The believability of each character, the challenging of stereotypes, and the leaving of the viewer to cometo their own conclusions beautifully draws one in here, and makes it the correct choice. Ill be voting for A History of Violence, and Id encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to do so before voting. I have a feeling you'll reach the similar conclusions that I did.
