Throughout April, we’re counting down to the release of Marvel’s Iron Man 3 with our picks for the Greatest Comic Book Movies of All Time; here’s #12…
A History of Violence, 2005.
Directed by David Cronenberg.
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Ashton Holmes and Peter MacNeill.
Based upon the 1997 graphic novel of the same name by writer John Wagner and artist Vince Locke, David Cronenberg’s acclaimed drama A History of Violence stars Viggo Mortensen as a mild-mannered small town diner owner who is forced to confront his criminal past after making national headlines when he kills two robbers in self defense.
Premiering in competition at Cannes, A History of Violence was well received by audiences and critics and went on to earn two Oscar nominations in 2006, with Josh Olson up for Best Adapted Screenplay and William Hurt (who would later portray General ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk) receiving a Best Supporting Actor nod, marking only the second occasion that an acting nomination had gone to a comic book adaptation after Paul Newman contested the same award for Road to Perdition.
A History of Violence is Cronenberg’s sole comic book adaptation, and judging by recent comments from the director, it’s highly probably that it’s also his last: “A comic book movie is really a comic book movie. Comic books were — especially those comic books which I was raised on (I loved Captain Marvel) — created for adolescents and they have a core that is adolescent. To me, that limits the discourse of your movie if you’re basing it accurately on that, and you cannot rise to the highest level of cinematic art. That’s my take on it. I went on to say that, of course, technically they can be incredibly interesting, since there are very clever people making the movie and of course have a lot of money they are throwing at it. But creatively, artistically, they are incredibly limited.”
Hey, it’s better than Cronenberg’s comments from last year, when he stated that comic book movies are “for kids” and “people who are saying The Dark Knight Rises is supreme cinema art, I don’t think they know what the f**k they’re talking about.”
Keep up to date with our entire countdown here.
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen – Available now via Amazon.co.uk
Originally published April 14, 2013. Updated November 30, 2022.
