Contemporary Cinema:
A History of Violence and Corpse Bride
By Douglas Hickey
October 2005
Summer has been officially over for a couple of weeks now. Kids are back in school. Sleeves are getting longer…and, as Oscar season looms on the distant horizon, films that favor character development and storytelling over noisy explosions and heaving breasts are making their way back into the theater circuit. What better way to make the transition from the mindless flicks of summer to the somber films of fall than with David Cronenberg’s new picture? A History of Violence is a film that is remarkable not only for its startling characterizations and incisive social commentary but also for its gripping action sequences and steamy sex scenes.
Let me begin by noting that this film should be the first major Oscar contender of the year. Expect the academy to give a nod to both Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings) for best actor and David Cronenberg (The Fly, Naked Lunch) for best director.
David Cronenberg, who hails from Toronto, Canada has long been pegged as the father of venereal horror. For the most part, this description suits Cronenberg’s oeuvre perfectly. How else do you classify a film like Dead Ringers about sociopathic identical twin gynecologists and the women they share? But in his last few films Cronenberg the shock artist has started playing second fiddle to a director we have never seen before, Cronenberg the humanist. In A History of Violence, loosely adapted from John Wagner and Vince Locke’s graphic novel, Cronenberg continues to flirt with normalcy without compromising his singular vision. The result is nothing short of remarkable.
Tom Stall (Mortensen) is, to quote the film’s trailer, “a family-man with longstanding ties to his community.” He owns and operates a mom-and-pop diner, protects his daughter from the monsters under her bed, and even finds time to get away with his beautiful wife, Edie (Maria Bello). But, when he risks his life to defend the patrons of his diner from a pair of marauding hoodlums, Tom’s world starts to crumble around him. The mob thinks Tom is a bad man named Joey Cusack, a man with a history of violence.
Saying much more would give away key plot points in a film that stands up remarkably well as an action flick. But, let’s just say that Cronenberg puts more at stake here than a case of mistaken identity. Tom and his town are emblems of the American Dream, and in a broad sense, Cronenberg is concerned with the history of violence in America. With such politically charged material, a lesser director would be tempted to wax ironic or turn his characters into caricatures, but Cronenberg is better than that. He doesn’t sacrifice story or characters for the sake of issues. Instead he lets the issues develop from story and character and from our privileged position as audience. As violence spreads like an epidemic in the Stall family, we are excited and frightened by what these characters are capable of, but so are they, and we don’t sit in judgment over them.
There is a marvelous scene in the beginning of the film where Edie dresses up like a high school cheerleader for Tom so they can “be teenagers together.” If this sounds campy, it’s not. These characters are fully conceived and completely believable. Cronenberg has always been concerned with the ambiguities of human sexuality, but he has never filmed sex that I would describe as tender. Here the adjective seems completely appropriate. The scene transcends romance and completely humanizes characters who might otherwise become symbols of themselves. Later in the film, after Tom becomes a hero, he has a very different sex scene with Edie. The juxtaposition is both provocative and powerful. What is it that’s so attractive about violence? Cronenberg doesn’t know the answer, but he’s asking the right question.
A History of Violence is a film filled with graphic violence, sex, and bad language. It would be a perfect film if it weren’t missing one critical element...zombies. Ok… it doesn’t really want zombies, but American cinema is in the middle of a zombie renaissance, or haven’t you heard? Films like 28 Days Later and Land of the Dead have resurrected the genre. In the middle of this film cycle, Corpse Bride holds the distinction of being a zombie film that you can take the kids to see. In less than 80 minutes and armed with nothing but classic moviemaking bravado, Corpse Bride buries the soulless CGI spectacles that Hollywood tries to pass for family films these days.
Awkward and insecure Victor Van Dort has to marry a woman he has never met. You see, Victor and his parents are members of the nouveaux riches and, as MasterCard is so fond of telling us, there are some things money can’t buy, things like class. That’s where marriages of political convenience come in. But Victor is reluctant, and before the Van Dorts can seal the deal, he inadvertently and hilariously marries a corpse.
Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Emily Watson all do terrific voice work here. So does Christopher Lee who turns in a deliciously nasty performance as the town priest. Danny Elfman’s music brings gothic lyricism and bounce to the picture—he plays the undead jazz musician Bonejangles. But, ultimately this is Burton’s film and his best since Edward Scissorhands; it’s a gorgeous necromantic stop-motion photoplay that would make Ray Harryhausen proud.
Douglas Hickey is a big movie dork as well as the founder and president of the Cochise College Cinéaste Circle.
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