The End of Violence (1997)

Mike Max is a Hollywood producer who became powerful and rich thanks to brutal and bloody action films. His ignored wife Paige is close to leaving him. Suddenly Mike is kidnapped by two ... See full summary »

Director:

Wim Wenders

Writers:

Nicholas Klein (story), Wim Wenders (story)

Stars:

Traci Lind, Rosalind Chao, Bill Pullman

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Traci Lind	...	Cat
Rosalind Chao	...	Claire
Bill Pullman	...	Mike Max
Andie MacDowell	...	Paige
K. Todd Freeman	...	Six O One
Gabriel Byrne	...	Ray Bering
Chris Douridas	...	Technician
Pruitt Taylor Vince	...	Frank Cray
John Diehl	...	Lowell Lewis
Soledad St. Hilaire	...	Anita
Nicole Ari Parker	...	Ade (as Nicole Parker)
Daniel Benzali	...	Brice Phelps
Samuel Fuller	...	Louis Bering (as Sam Fuller)
Marshall Bell	...	Sheriff Call
Frederic Forrest	...	Ranger MacDermot

Storyline

Mike Max is a Hollywood producer who became powerful and rich thanks to brutal and bloody action films. His ignored wife Paige is close to leaving him. Suddenly Mike is kidnapped by two bandits, but escapes and hides out with his Mexican gardener's family for a while. At the same time, surveillance expert Ray Bering is looking for what happens in the city, but it is not clear what he wants. The police investigation for Max's disappearance is led by detective Doc Block, who falls in love with actress Cat who is playing in ongoing Max's production.

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Plot Keywords:

interracial relationship | film industry | typewriter | lost identity | murder | 

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Taglines:

Nothing Lasts Forever

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language

Details

Country:

France Germany USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

12 September 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

El final de la violencia

Filming Locations:

Griffith Observatory, 2800 E Observatory Rd, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$64,154, 14 September 1997, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$283,033, 5 October 1997

Company Credits

Production Co:

CiBy 2000,Kintop Pictures,Road Movies Filmproduktion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

There is a scene in the film where we see a live recreation of the painting "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper.

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Goofs

When Page is holding Mike at gunpoint she holds the gun upward with the bottom of the handle facing outward and the ammo clip is clearly missing. Yet when Mike exits through the patio door she fires the gun and shatters the glass.

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Quotes

Ramon: Violence is dead.
Six O One: No, no, no, no, no. Listen, let me tell you something friend. Violence is bigger than ever. You see, little baby white girls be piercing every floppy piece of skin they got, creaming to every flavor of gangsta. Pretty soon, records just gonna have the sounda... sounda gunshots on 'em! Man, everywhere you look, billboards got some big ass movie star holding some big-ass gun. Let me tell you something... motherfucker! Violence rules, man! Violence is flip! You don't like it, run...

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Connections

Featured in Siskel & Ebert: The Best Films of 1997 (1998)

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Soundtracks

Score Contains a Four Bar Sample
of: "U.F.O. Has Landed in the Ghetto"
Written by Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner
Performed by Ry Cooder
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records, by arrangement with Warner
Special Products

User Reviews

Know what to expect, and you'll freakin LOVE this film

...or as I like to think of it, THE END OF VIOLENCE is the greatest scifi crime thriller that never was.

As always with Wim Wenders, the plot is fantastic. But, as always with Wim Wenders, the movie isn't about the plot, and those who expect to be carried by the plot will be disappointed. In the same way WINGS OF DESIRE had a great plot about angels but was not a fantasy; in the same way UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD had a great plot about a high tech dream machine but was not about technology; in the same way LISBON STORY had a riveting plot about a missing person but was not a mystery, here we have the same Wendersian formula which he pulls off flawlessly.

The plot, if you're curious, is about a futuristic "God machine" that can eliminate people with the push of a button. Designed ostensibly for crime prevention & surveillance (the old "to protect & serve" - where have we heard that before?), it gets out of control and takes murder & corruption to the next level of clinical perfection. Caught up in the game is Mike Max, a movie producer struggling with his own intense xenophobia and paranoia, which, like a disease, he himself spreads to society through his films.

That's all I'll say about the plot because (a) I don't want to ruin anything, and (b) like I said, the plot is secondary. What's really important, as you watch this movie, is to pay attention to the thought-provoking dialogue, the philosophical allusions and the overall metaphor of the situation. If you can tune into that stuff, then you're set for a great experience.

I'll give you just one example of the philosophy. There's a scene early on where they talk about the "observer effect" (you might recognize it as the paradox of "Schrödinger's cat" which you can look up on wikipedia). This is the fundamental theme of the film: the idea that, even by "impartially observing", we change the situation or in some cases destroy it. As one of the characters says, it's like "flipping on the light to observe the darkness." What a poetic & appropriate analogy.

This movie is choc full of that kind of stuff, and you may miss it if you're expecting car chases and gunfire. No, instead you get the ultimate anti-violence violence film, and I gotta give Wenders a standing ovation on being the first director I've seen pull it off.

A lot of movies in the past have carried a message of anti-violence; yet the films sink to the thrill of showing violence themselves and often glorifying it (the biggest example would be Norm Jewison's classic ROLLERBALL), and this becomes confusing if not outright hypocritical. But in this case, we get a chilling depiction of the epidemic of violence without showing any blood & guts to excite our savage instincts. It remains an intellectual film, not visceral. Don't get me wrong; this movie is plenty suspenseful, and on more than one occasion it'll have your heart flopping like an electrified noodle. But it's all done by way of the mind. To me, that's what makes this depiction of violence all the more effective & frightening: the way it's so clean & neat like in a video game. And without any fuss, someone's head could just go pop.

This is the best film I've seen in a while. I'm only taking off a few points because I wished it was twice as long & had more monologues, like some of the older Wenders films. But I have to say this film sticks to its objective and delivers a perfect product.