Review of Benny's Video (1992) by Ed Fucking H — 29 Oct 2011

Another superb film from Michael Haneke exploring the psychological effects of our violence obsessed culture. This time focusing on Benny, a 14 year old who spends most of his time watching violent films. To him the world depicted on the screen is even more real than the outside world, even going so far as to cover his windows, and only looking at the view outside from what his camera is displaying the screen. One day he invites a girl to his home, and eventually murders her with a slaughterhouse gun, filming the whole thing. He shows no clear signs of remorse or emotion and goes to a party. A few days later her shows his parents the film and they help him cover up the murder.

Michael Haneke covers similar terrain in his later film Funny Games, albeit in a different way here. The message he is trying to get across is make beleive violence in movies desensitizes us, to real life violence on screen (news footage etc), desensitizes us for the real thing. His parents are just only slightly less cold and detached when they see the footage, as they too are a product of western cultures preoccupation with death and destruction. While I don't really agree with Haneke that people who enjoy watching make believe violence in movies are automatically desensitized to the real life violence of the real world, I do always enjoy watching his films as they force the audience to ask themselves questions that they might not be comfortable with confronting. Personally I enjoy watching many different types of films that feature excessive violence from Rambo to Cannibal Holocaust, I loathe and abhor violence in real life. When I saw the video 'three Russian with a Hammer' I was profoundly disturbed by the images I saw and felt no pleasure or excitement, but rather disgust and repulsion.

Still exploring the effects on the mind of a culture who sees thousands of deaths on screen every year, is an important subject to explore, as I don't think anyone can deny that our culture is facinated by violence. Best case scenario this film should provoke discussion amongst those who see it. The violence on display here is not sensationalized or exploitative, but will disturb its viewers. (Especially vegatarians (the opening scene scene is footage of a pig being shot in the head at a slaughter house)), and so will not be for all tastes, but those who want to see a challenging movie, with food for thought, could do a lot worse than checking out this earlier Haneke film. A must see as far as I'm concerned.