THE END OF VIOLENCE

German filmmaker Wim Wenders is known for his thoughtful, slow, surreal movies which feature emotionally tortured characters in a changing world. His films include the angelic story WINGS OF DESIRE and the futuristic thriller TIL THE END OF THE WORLD. His latest feature contains all these trademark stylistic attributes and deals once more with the thriller genre. THE END OF VIOLENCE centers around two men, both in careers of violence, where one makes pretend violence on film and the other tries to stop it with high-tech surveillance equipment.

Bill Pullman (who appeared earlier this year in the slow moving, emotionally creepy David Lynch movie LOST HIGHWAY) stars are Mike Max, a very successful Hollywood producer of action movies. He is seen as a cut-throat, heartless man who can and will fire anybody on the spot. At the start of the story, he is just starting his own movie based on the Edward Hopper painting NIGHTHAWKS. After he shamelessly fires a co-worker, Mike finds himself helplessly bound and looking at the business ends of two guns held by hired thugs. This assault and potential murder doesn’t go unseen by NASA-trained surveillance expert Ray (Gabriel Byrne) who is hidden in a secret room in the LA observatory and has sophisticated video accessibility to all of the LA area.

The next memory that Mike has is of lying in the bushes of a strange Hollywood mansion, sore from physical abuse and being awakened by some Mexican gardeners. The gardeners, a Christian family, shelter him and nurse him back to health. Mike discovers that he is a suspect in the brutal murder of the two men who were previously about to murder him. Hence, Mike goes undercover as a gardener to wait out the manhunt and try to discover who actually committed the murders. Meanwhile, Mike’s wife, Claire (Andie MacDowell), is trying to adjust to life without him, and after two months of not seeing her husband, commits adultery. Likewise, Ray, struggles with his memories, as he hides the secret of his new profession and the murders.

Dramatically, this movie stumbles when it pursues rabbit trails featuring the supporting cast including a young policeman investigating the murders, a young actress who may know something about the case and a black actor who beds Mike’s wife. Quasi-intellectual, talky and even moody, this movie attempts to cover some of the same thematic territory as NATURAL BORN KILLERS. THE END OF VIOLENCE states that violence is always around us and that it will always be exploited by the media. The movie also states that no matter how sophisticated our crime deterrent technology is, violence will always find a way.

Even so, the movie does not glorify violence or make a hero out of its perpetrators. Rather, the movie makes a point that violence debases humanity, even if it is artificial violence in the movies or if it is used to stop other violence. Mike has a sort of epiphany after his abduction when he realizes that he has made himself into a sort of monster. He tries to reconcile with his wife at the end of the movie, but the damage he inflicted on her, by neglect and previous emotional abuse is too strong. Finally, the Mexican family acts as an antidote to violence with their strong sense of place and security which breeds peace and allows room for healing. Their Christian prayers and behaviors offer a hint of the truth that Christ himself, not technology, is the end of violence. Moderate in its own violence and sexual situations, this adult movie presents an esoteric, but perhaps, more truthful solution to peacemaking.