A History of Violence to me was a very mediocre movie to me. It built up the suspense for the first hour making you wonder who is this guy and why did he change his identity. Yet the ending was horrible, it really brought the wrong type of closure and really made me feel like I wasted my time. Technically this movie was not that well made either. The acting, the cinematography, music and writing were all very mediocre and filled with clichés.<br /><br />First of all the fact that William Hurt got an Oscar nomination for barely 10 minutes in this movie is absolutely ludicrous. I cannot even talk about his performance because he was hardly in the movie. Ed Harris who I respect very much as an actor gave a regular, stereotypical portrayal of a gangster which wasn't to satisfying. Viggo Mortensen played average, he was not good or bad, he was just there.<br /><br />The cinematography wasn't even there and the moments it was, it was easy to see what was coming next. The music added to this as well with a very simple soundtrack that was also just there to fill the void.<br /><br />Lastly the writing was not good enough to get an Oscar nomination. All it had was a simple dialog and stereotypical small town life. Very disappointing in every aspect. I would not recommend this film.