MovieChat Forums > Benny's Video (1993) Discussion > What would you have done yourself if Ben...

What would you have done yourself if Benny was your kid?


I would turn him in the same night and make sure he is locked up for life, or contact the parents and make an arrangement so they can kill him as they see fit. Perhaps using the same weapon or however they want to do it.

To take an innocent life like that is the same as killing the whole humanity. She was a really nice girl and she is not in this world anymore. I couldn't even face her family. It would affect me more than Benny or his father.

Also his attitude was really annoying, acting like he doesn't understand what the big deal is, while still being arrogant and ungrateful, and also goes on enjoying his life like nothing happened.

What would you have done if you were his parent?

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What's interesting to me about this scenario is that that in my opinion we're witnessing the depiction of how a serial killer is made. In the film he is having a formative experience of killing and prior to killing the girl he has been fixated on death and taking life (the video of the pig and stealing the gun). He has the hallmarks of a psychopath and seems genuinely flabbergasted by any display of emotion. His dad asks if he will sleep the night that the murder was revealed to the parents and he says "of course". We also see him calm after the murder, walking around, not panicking and seemingly unmoved.

He tells his dad he did it to see what it felt like. The obvious conclusion for the viewer from that exchange is that he felt nothing. Maybe he killed her to see if he would have emotions of some description and he didn't. The parents are either too beaten down by the shock to admit he's a psychopath who needs treatment or are in denial/too scared to face up to it. The dad at one point says he will go to a mental institution if the police become involved. He decides he doesn't want that for his son but we don't know what his reasons are, I don't think it's ever fully resolved.

So in relation to your point about being the parent of a child like this, I wonder if they fully realised how dangerous he was. They seem to think he's a quiet, typical teenager and seem very sure of his intelligence.


Also his attitude was really annoying, acting like he doesn't understand what the big deal is, while still being arrogant and ungrateful, and also goes on enjoying his life like nothing happened.


There's a reason his attitude was like that. He is a psychopath. Normal kids don't go around shooting into other kids using guns made for killing livestock.

I'm not a parent but I think realistically if my child did something like this and seemed completely unaware of the gravity of it I'd have to take action. If I asked him if he felt shame, horror, regret, remorse, pain of any kind and I got no reply, I'd feel I had no option but to let professionals decide how dangerous he is. I couldn't live with an unremorseful killer under my roof, even if it was my son.

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[deleted]

Um, no. You would not. Especially your second idea is ridiculous. haha

!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

What does bother me, however, is that I find it highly unrealistic his parents would simply cover it up WITHOUT bothering to think, "Hey, we can clean this up for him 'cause we love him but this does not change the fact that he is incredibly twisted, unemotional, and unrepentant." They hardly even discuss this.

By the end of the movie, as I watch this emotionless idiot eating his Brötchen, I was wishing I could shoot him in the head myself.

--
"Den Gleichen Gleiches, den Ungleichen Ungleiches."

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Hard to know how people will react when faced with such a shock.

I would like to think that I would immediately notify the authorities, but I am not sure. I would certainly be worried about the anguish experienced by the family of the victim.

Regardless, I would be worried about my son. He clearly needed intensive therapy. Just sweeping it all under the rug would definitely not be the solution. Hopefully, with treatment he could be prevented from hurting someone else or himself. Imagining nothing had happened would only risk him hurting more innocents, possibly even a member of the family.

And what guarantee would there be that he would never reveal what had happened to someone? The fact that he should show zero remorse, that the implication of his acts wouldn't even seem to register with him in the slightest, would be a huge red flag. If he didn't understand the difference between right and wrong at such a fundamental level (murdering someone in cold blood for no reason at all), how could he be expected to understand the importance of never telling anyone what had happened?

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To take an innocent life like that is the same as killing the whole humanity.

No, killing one person is not the same as killing all humans.



~ Observe, and act with clarity. ~

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