The End of Violence | |
---|---|
Directed by | Wim Wenders |
Written by | Nicholas Klein Wim Wenders |
Produced by | Nicholas Klein Deepak Nayar Wim Wenders |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Pascal Rabaud |
Edited by | Peter Przygodda |
Music by | Ry Cooder |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | MGM Distribution Co. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 122 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $5 million |
Box office | $386,673 |
The End of Violence is a 1997 American drama film by the German director Wim Wenders. The film's cast includes Bill Pullman, Andie MacDowell, Gabriel Byrne, Traci Lind, Rosalind Chao, and Loren Dean, among others. It also features a soundtrack marked with the signature sounds of Wenders regulars Jon Hassell, Ry Cooder, and Bono. The film was praised by a select few critics for its cinematography, but performed poorly in the box office. It was entered into the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. [1]
The film had a budget of $5 million, but only received $386,673 in its domestic box office.
Like many other of Wenders' American films, the film was shot in multiple locations, for instance the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park and the Santa Monica Pier.
A scene in the film shows a live recreation of the painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.
Film producer Mike Max meditates on the paranoia of fear of attack, in the film industry and life in general, as his wife Paige announces she is leaving him. He receives a document via email from a NASA employee who he met earlier at a conference. Before opening it, Mike is kidnapped and almost killed, a scene captured by surveillance cameras and witnessed by computer scientist Ray Bering on surveillance footage scene in his laboratory at the Griffith Observatory.
However, it soon turns out the two men have been shot, Max has escaped and now is accused of killing them. He takes shelter with, and goes to work for, the Mexican gardeners who find him and they help him investigate who is trying to kill him and why. Bering, who originally sent Max the email and recognized Max in the surveillance footage, has a conversation with an intelligence agent who makes it clear that anyone who gets in the way of a new “anti-crime” satellite surveillance program not yet approved by Congress will be dealt with terminally.
Detective Dean Brock suspects Max is not a killer and on a tip meets with Bering, who is assassinated by a gunshot as they begin to speak. Max gives up his business and money to his wife and the film ends as he meditates on how a real attack has freed him from paranoia.
The film was produced through Ciby 2000 but acquired by MGM for $2-$3 million in November 1996. [2]
The End of Violence received some negative reviews from critics. It holds a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 35 reviews with an average rating of 5/10.[ citation needed ] Writing in Time Out New York, Andrew Johnston (critic) observed: "Many of Wenders's best films have been road movies and Violence qualifies as one thanks to all the time the characters spend on L.A.'s freeways. Like Robert Altman's Short Cuts (which it resembles in a lot of ways), it cleverly exploits its Southern California locale and offers a truly challenging analysis of American life." [3]
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German filmmaker and author, who is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among the honors he has received are prizes from the Cannes, Venice, and Berlin film festivals. He has also received a BAFTA Award and been nominated for three Academy Awards and a Grammy Award.
Rosalie Anderson MacDowell is an American actress and former fashion model. MacDowell is known for her starring film roles in romantic comedies and dramas. She has modeled for Calvin Klein and has been a spokeswoman for L'Oréal since 1986.
The Conversation is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Robert Duvall. Hackman portrays a surveillance expert who faces a moral dilemma when his recordings reveal a potential murder.
Paris, Texas is a 1984 neo-Western drama road film directed by Wim Wenders, co-written by Sam Shepard and L. M. Kit Carson, and produced by Don Guest. It stars Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Aurore Clément, and Hunter Carson. In the film, disheveled recluse Travis Henderson (Stanton) reunites with his brother Walt (Stockwell) and son Hunter (Carson). Travis and Hunter embark on a trip through the American Southwest to track down Travis's missing wife, Jane (Kinski).
Sex, Lies, and Videotape is a 1989 American independent drama film written and directed by Steven Soderbergh. The plot tells the story of a troubled man who videotapes women discussing their sexuality and fantasies, and its impact on the relationships of a troubled married couple and the wife's younger sister.
Once Upon a Time in America is a 1984 epic crime film co-written and directed by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone, and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. The film is an Italian–American venture produced by The Ladd Company, Embassy International Pictures, PSO Enterprises and Rafran Cinematografica, and distributed by Warner Bros. Based on Harry Grey's novel The Hoods, it chronicles the lives of best friends David "Noodles" Aaronson and Maximilian "Max" Bercovicz as they lead a group of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence as Jewish gangsters in New York City's world of organized crime. The film explores themes of childhood friendships, love, lust, greed, betrayal, loss, and broken relationships, together with the rise of mobsters in American society.
Robert Dean Stockwell was an American actor with a career spanning seven decades. As a child actor under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he appeared in Anchors Aweigh (1945), Song of the Thin Man (1947), The Green Years (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), The Boy with Green Hair (1948), and Kim (1950). As a young adult, he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway play Compulsion and its 1959 film version; and in 1962 he played Edmund Tyrone in the film version of Long Day's Journey into Night, for which he won two Best Actor Awards at the Cannes Film Festival. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his starring role in the 1960 film version of D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers.
Nirvana is a 1997 Italian cyberpunk science fiction film directed by Gabriele Salvatores. The film stars Christopher Lambert, Diego Abatantuono, Sergio Rubini, and Stefania Rocca. It was screened out of competition at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.
Loren Dean is an American actor. He has appeared on stage and in feature films, including as the title character in Billy Bathgate, as well as Apollo 13, Rosewood, Space Cowboys, and Ad Astra. He also appeared in a recurring role on the television series Bones.
The Coca-Cola Kid is a 1985 Australian romantic comedy film. It was directed by Dušan Makavejev and stars Eric Roberts and Greta Scacchi. The film is based on the short stories The Americans, Baby, and The Electrical Experience by Frank Moorhouse, who wrote the screenplay. It was entered into the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.
Act of Violence is a 1949 American film noir directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor and Phyllis Thaxter. It was produced by Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Adapted for the screen by Robert L. Richards from a story by Collier Young, the film confronts the ethics of war and was one of the first to address the problems of World War II veterans.
A Yank at Oxford is a 1938 comedy-drama film directed by Jack Conway and starring Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Vivien Leigh and Edmund Gwenn. The screenplay was written by John Monk Saunders and Leon Gordon. The film was produced by MGM-British at Denham Studios.
A Bucket of Blood is a 1959 American comedy horror film directed by Roger Corman. It starred Dick Miller and was set in the West Coast beatnik culture of the late 1950s. The film, produced on a $50,000 budget, was shot in five days and shares many of the low-budget filmmaking aesthetics commonly associated with Corman's work. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a dark comic satire about a dimwitted, impressionable young busboy at a Bohemian café who is acclaimed as a brilliant sculptor when he accidentally kills his landlady's cat and covers its body in clay to hide the evidence. When he is pressured to create similar work, he becomes a serial murderer.
Brass Target is a 1978 American suspense war film based on the 1974 novel The Algonquin Project by Frederick Nolan. The film was produced by Berle Adams and Arthur Lewis and directed by John Hough. It stars Sophia Loren, John Cassavetes, Robert Vaughn, George Kennedy, Patrick McGoohan and Max von Sydow.
Traci Lind is a retired American film actress known for playing Janine in the 1990 film The Handmaid's Tale, Missy McCloud in My Boyfriend's Back, and stuntwoman Cat in Wim Wenders' The End of Violence. She also had supporting roles in several other films including Nurse Graves in The Road to Wellville, Christie Langford in Class of 1999, and Natalie St. Clair in Bugsy.
Hollywood Heights is a telenovela-style limited series which aired on Nick at Nite and TeenNick from June 18 to October 5, 2012. Loosely based on the Mexican telenovela Alcanzar una estrella , the series follows aspiring singer-songwriter Loren Tate, whose life changes forever when she crosses paths with her rock star idol Eddie Duran. Hollywood Heights was executive produced by six-time Emmy Award-winner Jill Farren-Phelps, and co-executive produced by Hisham Abed and Josh Griffith, who also served as head writer.
The Black Dakotas is a 1954 American Technicolor Western spy film directed by Ray Nazarro and produced by Columbia Pictures. Set during the American Civil War and filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch, the film stars Gary Merrill as a cold-blooded secret agent using the war for his own ends. It also stars Wanda Hendrix and John Bromfield. The film features The Lone Ranger television series Jay Silverheels and Clayton Moore in separate roles as well as Richard Webb of Captain Midnight.
Legend is a 2015 biographical drama film written and directed by Brian Helgeland, adapted from John Pearson's book The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins. The film follows the Kray twins' career and relationship together through their convictions for murder and sentencing to life imprisonment in 1969.
Three Thousand Years of Longing is a 2022 fantasy romantic drama film directed and produced by George Miller. Written by Miller and Augusta Gore, it is based on the 1994 short story "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye" by A. S. Byatt and follows a djinn who is unleashed from a bottle by a professor and tells her stories from his thousands of years of existence. The film is dedicated to Miller's mother Angela, as well as Rena Mitchell, relative of producer Doug Mitchell.
The Souvenir Part II is a 2021 drama film, written and directed by Joanna Hogg. It is a sequel to The Souvenir (2019). It stars Honor Swinton Byrne, Jaygann Ayeh, Richard Ayoade, James Spencer Ashworth, Harris Dickinson, Charlie Heaton, Joe Alwyn, and Tilda Swinton.