2005 Ranked
Non-2018 First Time Watches Ranked

Film #47 of my 100 Degrees, 100 Movies Challenge

Common actor from previous film: William Hurt

PREVIOUS FILM: Robin Hood
NEXT FILM: Glengarry Glen Ross

"Okay, Billy... Let's show this asshole we mean business."

I loved the underlying themes and the concept of A History Of Violence, but ultimately, it just left me wanting more.

I thought the films reveal was done really well, but other than that, everything felt like it just was thrown out there without being fleshed out and then they moved on to the next thing. The son was being bullied at school. But then he does what he does and it's never mentioned again. What was the point? It didn't build the son up as a character (or maybe it did but very minutely) and didn't affect the storyline apart from one line of dialogue. Ed Harris' character was very cool but I would've loved to see more of his backstory. The final antagonist was just kinda thrown out there and while it was a decent reveal as to who he was, there just wasn't enough there for me. I couldn't get into anything because it was all just gone.

The film itself was really well made though, especially some of the gorier scenes. I will say I didn't think the score fit some of the scenes. The score for the shotgun scene where Tom was running home just didn't fit with the tone of the scene.

Decent film that was well-made, but could've done with an extra 30 minutes to build some more characters up.