A History of Violence is a 2005 action thriller film directed by David Cronenberg and written by Josh Olson.

The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, and William Hurt.

In the film, a diner owner becomes a local hero after he foils an attempted robbery, but has to face his past enemies to protect his family.

[7][8] Tom Stall is a diner owner who lives in the rural town of Millbrook, Indiana, with wife Edie, teenage son Jack, and daughter Sarah.

Tom vehemently denies this, but Carl remains persistent and begins to stalk the Stall family.

Under pressure from Carl and his newfound fame, Tom's relationship with his family becomes strained.

He is caught by Carl, who, with Jack as his hostage, goes with his henchmen to the Stall house and demands that "Joey" return to Philadelphia with them.

Tom's brother, crime boss Richie Cusack, calls him and demands his return to Philadelphia, threatening to come to Indiana if he does not.

In Philadelphia, Tom learns that the mobsters he offended took out their frustrations on Richie, penalizing him financially and delaying his advancement in the organization.

Tom offers to make peace, but Richie orders his men to kill his brother.

Tom returns home, where the atmosphere is tense and silent as the family sits around the dinner table.

Some moments later, his son offers him a communal plate of food and Edie looks at Tom with tears in her eyes.

Screenwriter Josh Olson intended from the beginning to use the original story as a springboard to explore the themes that interested him.

In addition, a more pronounced bone-crushing sound effect is used when Tom stomps on the thug's throat.

He even suggested a desire to have Fogarty retrieve the gun from his chest cavity had the action not been too similar to a scene from Videodrome.

"[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 82 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

[21] Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers gave the film four stars, highlighting its "explosive power and subversive wit", and lauded David Cronenberg as a "world-class director, at the top of his startlingly creative form".

[22] Entertainment Weekly reviewer Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the film an A, concluding that "David Cronenberg's brilliant movie" was "without a doubt one of the very best of the year".

[23] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the film a "mindblower", and noted Cronenberg's "refusal to let us indulge in movie violence without paying a price".

[24] Roger Ebert also gave the film a positive review, observing, "A History of Violence seems deceptively straightforward, coming from a director with Cronenberg's quirky complexity, but think again.

[28] In his list of best films of the decade, Peter Travers named this number four, praising director David Cronenberg:

[30] Leo, a 2023 Indian Tamil language film co-written and directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, is an adaptation of A History of Violence.