MovieChat Forums > Benny's Video (1993) Discussion > Why the last 40 minuttes of this movie p...

Why the last 40 minuttes of this movie piss me off (spoilers, duh)

posted 14 years ago by pulldowntheblinds
5 replies | jump to latest

I hate what Michael Haneke does sometimes with his movies, doing his best to make you feel guilty for watching it.

His movie after Benny's Video, Funny Games, is pretty popular and well known, and it's obviously about the media's obsession with violence and if you watch it you condone violence and if you don't want it you don't condone violence, which is so black and white it's ridiculous. I feel like Benny's Video is a precursor to that. The first hour or so is really interesting and intriguing but then the last 40 minutes, where his violent act pretty much takes a back seat, is so boring and monotonous that I was falling asleep. It's like as if Haneke was saying, "OH, LOOK HOW BORED YOU ARE NOW THAT THERE ISN'T ANY VIOLENCE. AREN'T YOU *beep* BORED, YOU *beep* VIOLENCE-OBSESSED *beep* It just felt like he was yelling that at me, even though that wasn't what I was thinking at all. I was bored by what was happening on screen, not because the violence was absent.

I was wondering if you all felt similar? I still like Haneke but dude needs to get his head out of his ass sometimes (which, honestly, he actually has done since, for the most part).

[–] Gloede_The_Saint 14 years ago

I liked the last part more than the first. Just watching how they handled the whole thing. How normal Benny was acting, like it was just a normal vacation, while the mother was falling apart was more interesting to me. I could almost touch the tension. The first part was great as well though. A great film about a sick mind.

Somebody here has been drinking and I'm sad to say it ain't me - Allan Francis Doyle

[–] Neon-man 14 years ago

Are you kidding me? The last 40 minutes of the film were so chilling. Benny and his mother are having a great time in Egypt and you think back at home, the father is cutting up the body of the young girl and disposing of her. It's disturbing; it makes you think about this disturbing world and how it never takes a break from violence.

[–] rouleur 14 years ago

I think most of the real drama occurs in the last 40 minutes as we see how self-centred, respectable, bourgeois society (represented by Benny's parents) both condones and covers up his acts. At no point in their deliberations do his parents question the morality of what covering up the murder entails. The way that they cope with his actions is what i find most interesting about the film.

[–] jabberttp 12 years ago

When I just read your subject before I saw the movie (I don't delve into IMDb threads until after seeing the movie) I took a new view.

And when the movie got to 40 minutes left I wanted to see what direction Hanake went in that you didn't like.

The direction that was taken then was the parents NOT punishing their spoiled and sick son in the least, but immediately going into cover-up mode.

I personally thought it was an emotional wallop when the cops were (and would've stayed) clueless to his crime if Benny didn't get so guilt-ridden that he HAD to tell the police.

Makes you wonder WHY he told the police. Solely because he couldn't live with himself? Yet he then expected to be released? Naive.

But in essence he screwed over his parents bigtime. The same parents who did NOT punish him for his transgression. Did NOT make his life a living hell for what he did. Yet selfish Benny threw his parents under the bus.

I was gonna rate this a '6' because I thought the pacing was quite off at times - not just the last 40 minutes, BUT rated it a '7' because of the emotional wallops that this film delivered.

Enough of them, and very effectively and thought-provoking. In essence that's one indication of success.

Unlike Funny Games which I got nothing out of and found nothing funny about it.

[–] TermlnatriX 9 years ago

I personally thought it was an emotional wallop when the cops were (and would've stayed) clueless to his crime if Benny didn't get so guilt-ridden that he HAD to tell the police.

Makes you wonder WHY he told the police. Solely because he couldn't live with himself? Yet he then expected to be released? Naive.

But in essence he screwed over his parents bigtime. The same parents who did NOT punish him for his transgression. Did NOT make his life a living hell for what he did. Yet selfish Benny threw his parents under the bus

Benny is a sociopath. There are many clues throughout the film that illustrate this. Him telling the cops about his parents covering it up was an inevitable act waiting to happen. He didn't feel any "guilt". If you watch the ending again, you'll see his answers make it sound as if he had nothing to do with it. We can also infer he erased the murder off the tape.

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