"Benny's Video" is an Austrain German-language movie from over 25 years ago written and directed by Michael Haneke. It was also Austria's official submission to the Academy Awards that year, but failed to get nominated. The cast includes Arno Frisch and Ulrich Mühe, who both appear in Haneke's even more famous "Funny Games" a couple years later. As for "Benny's Video", it is the second installment from a trilogy by Haneke, called "Glaciation". And in my opinion, it is also the best from the series. A lot of the action in this film has to do with making the wrong decisions. The parents must have made many wrong decisions about their son before the film starts already and this leads to a fatefully wrong decision by the son. In their attempts to deal with the situation, the parents make a decision that is at least morally wrong, but proves also factually wrong with the events at the end. Haneke loves to finish his films with major plot twists and this one here is no exception. Benny's decision at the end has a major impact on the future and something like this could already have been predicted when we see his father tell him he loves him, but he does not respond. I think he may have even hated him. He did not see the sacrifice their parents, especially his dad, made for him as he did not really see the wrong in what he had done. Benny is the epitome of a sociopath and his parents failed to realize that and metaphorically buried their own grave in the decisions they made and in the behavior they showed towards their son after the murder. As a whole, these 105 minutes were a pretty good watch. Strong acting by everybody involved and high-quality writing that will have you on the edge of your seat for the entire film basically. It is interesting how we see all the crucial events on video and not the way they actually happen, even if they happen at the same time. I certainly recommend "Benny's Video". A truly good watch, but not for people who are easily offended and cannot deal with violence. Everybody else should check it out.
Review of Benny's Video
