by Tori Potenza, Staff Writer

I remember watching Eastern Promises with my mom and younger sisters in high school. I paid no attention to who directed it and had no inkling that it could be from the same man who made The Fly (a movie I had not seen, but the clips on the VH1 show I Love the 80s made me feel ill). The connection did not come until I started getting into horror in my early 20s. Of course, once I became a Cronenberg devotee, I was eager to revisit these works that fell outside the horror sphere to see how they connected to his body of work, and the themes he often meditates on. A History of Violence (2005) and Eastern Promises (2007) are arguably his most mainstream films, both were critically revered and got award season buzz as well as nominations. And although they lean away from the body horror elements that are so intrinsically tied to Cronenberg’s public persona (although neither skimps on the violence) his musings around sex, gender, and identity are as present as ever. With elements of identity crises, queer tension, and traditional male v. female gender roles, these two films make for fascinating bookends in a very specific time in his filmography.

A History of Violence stars Viggo Mortensen as Tom Stall, a small town business owner whose domestic life is thrown into turmoil after he becomes a local hero for killing two criminals who attempted to rob his diner and assault his employees. After the story hits the news Tom begins receiving visits from a man that is convinced he is actually a presumed dead organized crime leader, Joey Cusack (also Mortensen).. Eastern Promises, also starring Mortensen, follows a midwife named Anna (Naomi Watts) who has a pregnant teenager Talia (Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse) die in her care. The baby survives and Anna uses the girl’s journal to find out who the father is. This act of kindness plunges her into the world of Russian organized crime and puts her, and the baby, in danger.

One of the biggest connections between these two movies is the beginning of a beautiful collaboration, and friendship between Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen. The two have found much to work on, and Viggo has become Cronenberg’s longest standing cypher. Mortensen brings something entirely different to each character even though Tom from A History of Violence and Nikolai from Eastern Promises have much in common. Both men are leading double lives. Tom was a mob leader who made the decision to break free of organized crime and lead a simpler life. Nikolai is a “driver” for the Russian mob, a lackey trying to make his way up in the world. It is not revealed until later that he is undercover, working for a government agency who are trying to take down the crime family. Tom’s former identity is buried so deep that it brings him both inner turmoil and threatens to ruin his new life. On the other hand, Nikolai seems to have killed whatever version of a self there was, and become a vessel.

Dialogue from both films hammer home these points. When Tom tries to explain his past life to his wife Edie (Maria Bello) he tells her that he killed his old self (Joey), “I never thought I would see Joey again…I went out to the desert and killed him, I spent 3 years becoming Tom Stall, you know I wasn’t born until I met you”. In EP, Nikolai explains his early life to some of the leaders of the crime organization and says that he “was dead when I was 15, now I live in the zone all the time”. In this way Tom represents life, while Nikolai represents death. By leaving the mob Tom makes the choice to take control of his life and make it his own, while Nikolai has made himself a weapon to be used by the government and therefore the mob. And while they have different relationships to organized crime they both have a strong inclination towards violence. The tragedy for Nikolai is that his relationship with Anna does awaken something within him. There is a warmth to him and it is clear he feels protective of her. Perhaps in another life she could have nurtured this side of him, like Edie (Maria Bello) does for Tom.

Double lives are at the crux of both movies. In AHOV we see the ripple effect of Tom’s double life and how, once it is revealed, it tears apart his Norman Rockwell-esque family unit. We watch as Tom tries to prove he has truly transformed himself into a new man with no attachment to his former life. On the other hand, EP is full of characters who are leading double lives, or reckoning with dueling identities. The protagonist, Anna, is part Russian, which helps her get in the door with the mob, although she does not speak the language and was not socialized in their traditional setting. She left her husband, rides around on a motorcycle, and is a career-driven woman. This makes her both of and outside their world which causes her to stand out. She also has to maneuver and learn which people want to help and which do not.

Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), the leader of the crime family, pretends to be a sweet Russian immigrant and community leader who owns a restaurant for other Russian immigrants to congregate, but underneath he is ruthless and engages in drug and sex trafficking. His paternalistic appearance initially endears him to Anna, while she has a distrust of Nikolai because of his tough appearance, as well as Kirillm(Vincent Cassel),a loud drunk womanizer. So she learns the hard way that looks can be deceiving. Kirill is really a closeted gay man in love with Nikolai, he also deals with substance abuse issues and is frequently intoxicated. This all seems to align with his struggle to live up to the standards his father sets to become a leader of the crime family, given his orientation he will never be able to fully live up to the expectations set out for him.

Both stories center around organized crime, unlike many of Cronenberg’s other work, which focus on some sort of mysterious shadowy organization (whether that be a government body, medical clinic, etc.). We as the viewer become intimately familiar with these shady crime families, and spend time in a more grounded reality than many of his horror/sci-fi stories. These organizations are brought into the light and we see how their crimes ripple out into the world outside their own–their codes, rules, and laws, uphold ruthless violence, bringing death and destruction to any of those who stand in their way.

Gender plays an essential role in these stories because of the traditional and oftentimes conservative nature of organized crime. Much like Anna in EP, Edie is a strong independent woman even within their traditional family structure. She is a lawyer and breadwinner in the family. Neither is the kind of woman that would not do well inside the realm of organized crime, which typically upholds sexist stereotypes and behaviors. Semyon runs a sex trafficking business. These women have no agency or power. They force girls into sex trafficking by bringing them from Eastern Europe under false pretences, getting them addicted to drugs, and raping them. He assaulted a minor, and it becomes clear he has no problem killing or torturing young girls when he needs to. At the same time, he hosts lovely birthday parties for nice old ladies in the restaurant. Even when it is revealed that Semyon is the father of the baby, his decision to kill her to save himself from being implicated in the death of the mother, is an easy one for him to make.

Proving one’s masculinity is also an essential part of these stories, especially around sexual identity being called into question. In EP, Kirill is often seen enjoying the young female prostitutes to hide the fact that he is queer. Because of this, he also forces Nikolai to do this even though he protests. He has no interest in raping these women but Kirill tells him he won’t trust him if he does not see him have sex. He even goes as far as to watch Nikolai do the job to completion. In AHOV Tom’s son Jack (Ashton Holmes) often has his sexuality called into question. Jack is a nerdy alternative kid and therefore an easy target for the jocks at his school. He struggles with the fact that he does not seem to project the sort of tough masculinity that the boys around him do. He wants so much to be looked at as a “man,” but it does not help that his mom babies him. When he finally picks up a gun and pulls the trigger to help defend his family, it calls into question if Tom’s violent nature is something that could have been passed down to his son.

Violence permeates the family unit in AHOV, we see how identity and sex tie into the violence. The sex scene between Tom and Edie show how their relationship has changed over the course of the film, and gives a sense of Tom’s identity reintegrating with Joey. At the beginning of the film, Tom and Edie go home to have sex. It is flirty, sweet, slow, and tender. Edie takes the time to dress up in an old cheerleading uniform and Tom lovingly goes down on her eventually leading to them 69ing. There is a huge element of fun and humor involved in their sex play. Later, after Tom’s true identity has been revealed, the tension between him and Edie breaks and they have a loud physical altercation which evolves into sex. Violence leads to sex. It is rough, urgent, and the two leave eachother scratched and bruised afterwards. He chokes her and the two quickly fuck on the stairs. All of the tenderness from the first scene is gone. It was such a physical scene that Cronenberg asked if they could use stunt pads, and both actors were bruised after the fact. Much of what happens and changes between Tom and Edie is unspoken and it becomes clear that Edie hates herself for loving the darker side of time because it reveals a darkness in her. Violence has now become a part of and transformed the family unit.

Sex is essential in EP because of the scene in the brothel between Kirill and Nikolai. But the presence of sex, or more accurately rape, is all throughout the film, its the lifeblood of Semyon’s business. It is also interesting that the rather violent sex scene of AHOV pairs with a sexual fight scene in EP. Nikolai becomes a target in the raging crime wars brewing within the mob. He is attacked by men sent to kill him while he is in a bathhouse. His towel quickly becomes undone and you have a fully nude Viggo violently and intimately killing them. The nudity and physicality of this scene are nowhere to be found in the brothel earlier in the film. It helps to further the idea that Nikolai is now a vessel for violence, where murdering a man has more passion behind it and seems to come more naturally than acts of sex or tenderness. There is a moment where it seems that perhaps he could entertain the idea of running off with Anna and the child and finding some peace like the one Tom killed for but ultimately the men are on two entirely different paths. Tom fights to pull himself out of the darkness while Nikolai feels a sense of comfort there.

While these are two Cronenberg films outside the scope of body horror, you can sense why he would be drawn to this material and its themes. Transformation is always at the helm of a Cronenberg project whether they be physical, mental, or spiritual transformations. The transformation of Joey to Tom, to a Joey/Tom sort of hybrid is the essential through line of A History of Violence, but also the transformation of the family unit as we see how one violent act unleashes long-buried secrets that each one must grapple with. In Eastern Promises we see transformation slightly differently, as it is more about how people from entirely different worlds colliding, and how that changes everyone involved in the life and death of Talia. Cronenberg’s dealing with the “dead girl trope” is also impressive, as Talia is always present within the film, her voice over reading out excerpts of her diary, making us aware of how much of a person she was, not just the dead body we see. Cronenberg always finds opportunities to delve into the connections between death and sex as well as gender and identity.

A History of Violence:

Eastern Promises:

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