Justified cruelty

Two bandits travel around the American province. Departing from the hotel, they reserve numerous corpses . Deciding that they should stay away from big cities, they find themselves in the quiet town of Millbrook , Indiana . In this city lives Tom Stoll, the respected owner of a small diner, and his family is Go and his wife Jack and Sarah. In the evening, just before closing time, those same bandits come into the diner of Tom. In the ensuing battle, Tom kills criminals and gets wounded in the leg. He is in the spotlight as a local hero who saved the lives of people, he is filmed by journalists and shown on television. After returning home, Tom notices an expensive car in front of his house, which causes him concern.

In the morning, three people appear in Tom’s diner, one of them, calling himself Karl Fogarty, turns to Tom, but uses the name Joey. He claims that they are old acquaintances and, moreover, that Tom is not what he seems. Go report the incident to the sheriff , and he stops the car on the road and asks them to leave the city. Tom is left alone in the diner when he sees a car approaching, the same one that he saw in the evening. She suddenly breaks away, and Tom, confident that his family is in danger, returns home in a hurry. Running home, he realizes that it was a false alarm. Go shopping with her daughter Sarah, where she meets Fogarty, who insists on his own, explaining to her that it was Tom who blindly made one of his eyes, asking Idi how it happened that her husband, the simple owner of the diner, managed to stop two seasoned killers. In the evening, a local sheriff visits his house, asks Tom about his past and tells him about his new acquaintances from the diner.

Carl Fogarty is the leader of a mafia group from Philadelphia , and his companions have a criminal record for murders and other crimes. Joey, about whom he spoke, is none other than the younger brother of Richie Cusack, one of the most influential representatives of the criminal world of Philadelphia. At school, Tom’s son, Jack, is again bullied, it all ends in tears for bullies. Tom scolds his son for this act, explaining that in their family problems are not solved by violence. Idi's wife asks Tom about his past, but he assures her that this is a misunderstanding. In the evening, the same car appears near Tom’s house; he gets out with a gun. Fogarty and his assistants and his son Jack come out of it. Jack is released, as Tom has promised to go with Fogarty. Tom again gets involved in a fight in which one by one he kills everyone except Fogarty, whom his son will kill.

At the hospital, Idi learns the truth about her husband. It turns out that he is not Tom Stoll at all, but that same Joey Cusack, the brother of the famous gangster, and his whole life is falsification . Returning home, he quarrels with his wife. But, already going to bed, he receives a call from his older brother from Philadelphia, who invites him to come. He goes to a meeting. In a designated place, a man meets him and takes him to his brother's mansion. During the conversation, it becomes clear that the older brother intends to get rid of the younger, as this is required by business partners. Richie orders to kill Tom, which ends very tragically for both his people and himself. Tom returns home, where he puts up with his family.

• 2006 - two Academy Award nominations : Best Supporting Actor (William Hurt), Best Adapted Screenplay (Josh Olson)
• 2006 - two nominations for the Golden Globe Award: best film - drama, best female role - drama (Maria Bello)
• 2006 - BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nomination (Josh Olson)
• 2006 - Nomination for the Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Maria Bello)
• 2006 - Three Saturn Award nominations: Best Adventure Film, Action or Thriller, Best Actor (Viggo Mortensen), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (William Hurt)
• 2006 - American Film Institute Award for Best Film
• 2006 - Nomination for the David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Film (David Cronenberg)
• 2006 - Nominated for the US Scriptwriters Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (Josh Olson)
• 2005 - three nominations for the Satellite Award: the best film - drama, best male role - drama (Viggo Mortensen), best female supporting role - drama (Maria Bello)
• 2005 - nomination for the Golden Palm Branch of the Cannes Film Festival
• 2005 - getting into the top ten best films of the year according to the National Council of Film Critics of the USA

• The film was shot in the homeland of director David Cronenberg in Canada . The role of the fictional American city of Millbrook, Indiana , was played by the city of Millbrook in Ontario ; film scenes taking place in Philadelphia were filmed in Toronto .
• One of the most costly and cruel scenes of the tape (also known as “scene 44”) - the dream of Tom Stoll, in which he kills Karl Fogarty - did not get into the film. The director considered her an inappropriate reference to his previous work. This scene with the comments of Cronenberg was included in the DVD edition of “Justified Cruelty” ^[3] .
• Rental versions of the film for the United States and the rest of the world are slightly different. Especially for the American hire Cronenberg made two episodes a little less bloody ^[3] .
• The premiere of the film “Justified Cruelty” took place on May 16, 2005 as part of the 58th Cannes Film Festival . The picture participated in the main competition ^[4] .
• This is the last major Hollywood movie released in VHS format.
• When filming the scene where Tom and Idi have sex on the stairs, David Cronenberg turned to the stunt director of the film with a request to put some safety cushions under the actors so that they would not get hurt. The director laughed in response and said that during his entire film career he had never had to use safety pads for sex. As a result, the scene was almost completely shot without these pillows, which is why in the next scene the bruise on Maria Bello's back was the real one that she received when she lay on the steps. Moreover, the bruises on her back were actually much more, but they were smeared with makeup.

• Official movie website
• Justified Cruelty on the Internet Movie Database  
• Justified Cruelty on the allmovie website  
• Interview by David Cronenberg