A History of Violence
by John Wagner
illustrated by Vince Locke
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Vertigo, DC Comics (New York): 1997. Trade paperback: 286 pages. ISBN-10: 1-56389-367-3 Suggested retail price: $9.99 (US) Tags: Graphic Novel; made into movie; mafia; murder; New York City Tactical strength: [6/10] |
When I watched the movie A History of Violence, I didn't know that script writer Josh Olson based his screenplay on the graphic novel by John Wagner. Usually, I try to read the book or graphic novel before I see the film, but in this case, I don't think it matters which one you read or watch first. The movie and the graphic novel take the same basic premise and produce completely different stories. In essence, both stories start out with a humble café owner, Tom, in the Midwest who becomes a local hero when he stops the robbery of his café by disarming the perpetrators and shooting them with one of their own guns. In both stories, we learn that the protagonist has changed his identity and in his former life as Joey, he had connections to the mafia. The media attention to the heroic shooting puts the café owner's picture in the news, and mobsters who want revenge make the pilgrimage from the East to kill the hero. Even with these starting points in common, the movie and the graphic novel diverge rapidly and cover much different territory.
In the film, we learn nothing about Joey's story. In the graphic novel, Wagner provides a complete description of what Joey and his friend Ritchie do to get the mob so angry. Joey and Ritchie as teenagers planned a raid on a mafia collection point in their Brooklyn neighborhood. Each month a mafia boss would meet in a local restaurant to collect tribute money from his local agents. Joey and Ritchie successfully attacked the restaurant and stole the money. Ritchie bragged about the raid and eventually got killed. After a near miss attempt on his life, Joey flees Brooklyn with his share of the money. He spends a few years working on his identity as Tom McKenna, and eventually settles down in a Midwestern town. After the incident at the café, Tom starts receiving threatening calls at his farmhouse. Tom realizes that the Brooklyn mobsters won't let him and his family alone, and he decides to travel back to Brooklyn to settle the score one way or another.
Where the film focuses on the disruption Tom's past brings to his family, the graphic novel focuses on Tom's motivation as an individual. As a teenager, Tom lived with his grandmother, and he robbed the mafia to pay for heart surgery his grandmother needed to live. Once Tom starts receiving threatening calls toward his family, he once again takes on the mob to protect his loved ones. Although the film has a higher body count, the graphic novel has more vivid depictions of torture.
Overall, I think the movie asks more serious questions about how Tom's secret life would affect the members of his family, but it never really comes to a satisfactory conclusion. The graphic novel has a ending that follows directly from the events in the novel. A History of Violence doesn't ask any really deep questions, but it does neatly resolve the issues that the plot raises.
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