Benny's Video
Director: Michael Haneke
Year Released: 1992
Rating: 2.0
Painfully simplified portrait of alienation, as a violence-and-video obsessed teenage boy kills a girl he invites into his home and then hides the body and continues on with his life. But while Haneke places the blame solely on the media, little consideration is made for the fact that the Benny character is insane to begin with (my armchair guess: some variation of schizophrenia) and that the media obsession is just a symptom. Plus, Haneke has a tendency to use sensationalism to 'prove' his points, and the (presumed) Nazi ideation and visual of the pig being executed are just for shock and awe. The really intriguing characters are the parents - who actually aide the son to protect their own hides - although their lives are not the focus of the picture.
