prodigy_ dancer I don't find the movie particularly interesting. There's a consensus among the viewers that Benny's actions are influenced by his lifestyle and media violence addiction. Whether this was Haneke's idea or not the message is simply wrong.What is overlooked is that Benny is a typical psychopath. In real life it'd be much harder to make a diagnosis but for fictional characters approximations are good enough. The portrayal isn't completely accurate but many of the common signs are there: shallow affect, the total lack of empathy, conscience and remorse, insidiousness, impulsiveness, irresponsibility, casual use of violence, etc. Anyone who wants to learn more should read "Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us" by Robert D. Hare, one of the leading experts in the field.Long story short: Benny's media preferences are the extension of his pathological personality not the other way around. Psychopaths existed long before Hollywood and their actions are not dictated by something they saw in a film somewhere.

Rodrigo Amaro Benny has everything! A wealthy family that gives him a great life, money to spend with his friends at McDonalds, more money so that he can rent the videos he wants at the videostore; everything constitutes for Benny being a good teenager, or a good person. But he also has a darker side: a strange fascination for death that seems to increase in his soul, to later be exteriorized in his body, after filming a horrific execution of a pig (showed right in the opening and repeated one more time). That image leads to his first real crime, the murder of a young girl randomly picked on the street, who is brutally murdered by him. Reason: Out of curiosity. In "Benny's Video" director Michael Haneke argues about our hunger for violence, a hunger that seem to be everywhere, it follows us all the time and we can't deny our impression with it (that's why violent films are more popular than artistic films). It's present in the films Benny rents, on the news he watches with his parents, everywhere. Who can blame the boy? His morbid desire had to be fulfilled, he needed to know if killing someone is a unimpressive experience than the one he has while watching his films or repeatedly watching the pig's death, first in the usual speed, than in slow motion. Here's a boy who recurred to violence simply because no one was around (mother and father were traveling) and nothing could stop him at the moment. And we could say that he could go on killing more people given the fact his parents haven't turned him to the police but he saw that what he did was too much.Played by an always impressive Arno Frisch (way before of making of us his accomplices with his disturbing and violent experiences in "Funny Games"), Benny is quite a figure and his deadly obsessions and the murder makes Macaulay Culkin's pranks in "The Good Son" something funny. In all of his amazing stoicism, the killing of a girl was acceptable but seeing what his parents did, covering up for him and getting rid of the corpse was way worst and that he couldn't tolerate (that explains the ending, in part). And the parents (played by Ulrich Mühe, ironically he would play the victim of Frisch in "Funny Games" and Angela Winkler) are even hard to imagine, not in the sense of they saying they love their son (when they don't) but this protection and their cold reaction on the fact he murdered someone (the mother even burst in laughter right after Benny's confession). Not a single emotion appears right after that, except when they travel to Egypt (while the father arranges a way to disappear with the girl's body) the mother shows some reaction by crying but even that crying seems so doubtful, we can't know for sure why she's doing that.Haneke impresses us by showing how Benny committed the crime but without appealing to the Hollywood formula of gore, yet it is a disturbing moment. He puts a camera filming a part of the house, we can only hear what's happening in the other room, the girl screams, the sound of the gun (a captive bolt pistol, same thing used by Anton Chigurh in a more well known film) being used. It's difficult to not be shocked or feel frozen after that. More impressive than this moment only the first (and real) image of the film, already mentioned, something quite unnecessary on a film that wants to make a criticism over violence but opens this same film to the shock of many viewers. How many continued to watch after the pig's execution? If you can't deal with it, just fast forward these 40 seconds, and continue to watch the film, the discussions made by "Benny's Video" are many, all of them welcome and relevant.I have some issues with the film in terms of its structure but I can't understand all this complain about the film being slow. It's slow paced but it's not that bad. The way Haneke used slowness at some points and in some of the three acts that was unnerving. The first act deals with the controversial and most interesting part of the film, the one in which we keep asking ourselves 'what comes next?'. The trip to Egypt was boring, it often breaks the pace of the movie, and when it's not doing this it gets worse when it seems to take us out of the movie, it seems a different film with nowhere to go and nothing to say. But when we reach the third act, back in Sweden, it comes some good surprises; then, finally leaves us with some doubts about the ending. Brutal in its reality, shocking in its content but subtle in its presentation, this is an uncomfortable and unsettling film that doesn't exist to inspire more Benny's out there, in case some detractors might think that films like this are responsible for violence in the world. It's there to open our eyes to a wider, depressive and sad reality that could be happening close to you and you wouldn't know. 9/10

b2324847 BEFORE READING THIS REVIEW... WATCH THE MOVIE! IT'S A MONUMENTAL SPOILER.The reality that happens in front of Benny's eyes doesn't mean anything. For him reality is video. He sees violent movies and television news, all of them about crime, corruption and war. Some people who have left their comments here said that the trip to Egypt didn't make much sense, that it loses strength. Obviously they don't see the contrasting effect between the two things. In Egypt, people from the middle and lower classes are really poor. But what does Egypsian TV shows?... Music videos, live concerts, football, etc. Benny doesn't like that so he turns the TV off, these things don't interest him. However in his country... What does the TV show all day? Had Benny reacted the same way?Where are they worse? In Austria or in Egypt? If he had been born in Egypt... Would he murder a girl because he wanted to know how it feels?When Benny shows the video to their parents, they don't even flinch. What their son did doesn't affect them, doesn't disturb them, doesn't cause them any disgust... ¿? ... It's unbelievable. Worse, when his parents discuss it alone, they even never mention the girl's family. They feel no sorrow about the girl or her family. They just think of themselves and how will they hide everything. In fact, they become accomplices of the murderer.I read all comments before posting my review.Someone had said: "He seems initially perturbed after the murder"... What movie did he/she watch? That can only be true if eating a yogurt and drawing next to a dead body were synonyms of perturbation. Another person had said: "Michael Haneke's disturbing film suggests that violent videos may not only desensitize, but influence some to commit violent acts"OK... Isn't Benny's video (written and directed by Michael Haneke) a movie about a murder? About a family that puts a crime under the carpet? About a boy pointing at his parents as they were the murderers when that isn't true? About impunity?So... No one thinks that THIS movie is one of those violent videos? It's apology of the crime or reflection on violence? I think it's more of the first one.1/10

vvvallaton Michael Haneke is dealing a important issue here as a teenager boy Benny watches violent films and murders a girl at the same age as a result. The rest of the film tries to show how Benny and his parents are dealing with this situation but it fails to make an impact of any kind.The first part of the film works pretty OK. Haneke's very realistic directing works well and the scene where Benny kills the girl is shown through a video screen is very effective. But after that the film does not really go anywhere. Haneke tries to show here how Benny's parents tries to handle the situation after Benny has shown them the video where the killing happens. I can see what Haneke tries to say here but he gives a pretty black and white point of view about the issue. Characters don't show any motions here (except in one scene on the end where Benny's mother breaks) and while it is parentally meant to be that way it's also a problem of the film. Benny's cold and insensible presence is getting more and more irritating as he stays the same through the whole film and you don't really care what's happening to him. You don't really get into his parents either as their are not allowed to show their feelings either.While Benny's parents are clearly one of the main reasons for his behavior, the message is here a little too underlining. And the long period of Benny's and his mothers vacation in Egypt does not really do anything for the movie. It feels like Haneke tries to get something out from the characters and their relationships but he ends up nothing. Many scenes are shot through Benny's video camera and i think Haneke is trying to take the viewer into Benny's mind but he does not succeed there either. Benny's actions are quite mild and non-interesting.There is no reason either why Benny shows the video for police and gives his parents in. He says to police that "no reason". The same problem is in "Funny Games" also as Haneke does not really seem to know what he wants to say after all.I give a credit to Haneke for making a movie like this and i really like his realistic style and slow pace. But it's a shame that his skills for character study and storytelling lacks too much. It's all very shocking and everything but that's not enough to make a good movie.