I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

People are voting emotionally.

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

"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.

The central idea of Benny's Video is whether people in western society have become so desensitised to images of violence in film and the media that they become capable of committing acts of murder themselves. It asks is the culture in the developed world such, that we are losing touch with the reality of violence. In this film a teenage boy from a privileged background kills a girl 'to see what it's like'. On discovering the crime, his parents automatically decide to cover it up. They are emotionless and discuss the problem in terms of a logic puzzle; at no point do they ever even mention the murdered girl or her family. With this in mind, it's obvious that Benny's Video is also about the banality of evil; the way that acts of horror are often committed by frighteningly calm and seemingly unremarkable people. The film emphasises this theme by having an underplayed aesthetic. The act of murder is depicted in a way as far removed from typical film violence as is possible. It's caught on video but framed such that we see virtually nothing, instead it is conveyed by sound instead of image. The thump of the bolt gun and the girl's screams are what indicate to us what is going on. It's actually quite disconcerting to have it depicted this way and in some respects it's more horrific as its clumsiness feels more authentic. Its approach is so unusual it throws you off guard somewhat making the whole thing that bit more effective.It's a cold film. Michael Haneke has made it intentionally such as a counterbalance to the way reality is depicted in the media in general where artificial joviality is widespread. It does have to be said though that the coldness fits in with the theme of the film, it's about emotionally stunted people after all. It feels like a film that has become maybe even more relevant today too. Benny lives in an enclosed world of technology where he watches violent films and news feeds; it feels he was living a life that many others now do in the internet age. So from this point-of-view it still carries a lot of relevance and seems quite prophetic. Not that I personally think that the viewing of violent films makes a person violent themselves, I think the seed is in an individual irrespective of this but perhaps even Haneke thinks this too, as its quite obvious that Benny's parents are capable of repulsive acts while devoid of emotion. They are not so far removed from Benny, his impulses seem genetic.This is a disturbing film but not a particularly graphic one. Although viewers should be alerted to the opening scene of a pig being killed which is not a sequence for the squeamish at all. But overall this is a film that is about the effect of violent films, as opposed to actually being one itself. It's thought-provoking but not really entertainment as such.

A relentlessly humourless, quietly accusing and sad portrait of the modern bourgeoisie. Benny is a normal teenager. That's a very important thing to acknowledge, throughout the film. His monosyllabism and deadpan, expression-void face are familiar to us. Haneke is clearly tying this (and the rather muted content of his life, not to mention the drab palette of the production design) to his parents emotional absence and the substitute excitement he gets from media - videos and music.So the story turns in a violent moment although Benny's attempts to assimilate his actions are dysfunctional (he can't bring himself to speak to his friends about it and largely carries on as normal). Seen in these terms the terse performance of Arno Frisch is ideal for Haneke, super acting. Ulrich Mühe's father is also a fine understated study of an intelligent adult boxed in by incomprehension. Angela Winkler as Benny's mother really comes into her own during a brief trip to Egypt, the one moment of respite in the film, where the cracks of despair are almost a relief from the stifling focus on the second hand image.The film rotates about two short moments - the pivotal violent act and Benny's father's question to the boy about it 'Why did you do it?' 'I wanted to know what it would feel like'. Classically for Haneke, both act and response are rather equivocal although we understand that the boy's social disassociation within a complacent, bourgeois lifestyle has germinated catastrophe. A well-made, strongly moral but cheerless film. 7/10

Anyone that's seen any of Haneke's work knows that he typically leans towards confrontational and controversial subject matter, and BENNY'S VIDEO is no different. This film seems to strike people differently and on many different levels, as much of Haneke's work does. I must say, that it is not quite what I was expecting based on what I had read about it, and can honestly say I was slightly disappointed as I was expecting an extremely dark and nihilistic film (and that's not quite what I got...) - but it is still a good film that will be of interest to those that "enjoy" more thought provoking and "dark" cinema...Benny is a relatively average teenager, except for his penchant for watching and re-watching a homemade tape of the slaughter of a pig. He seems to be a relatively sociable child as he has friends that he hangs out with and doesn't seem to be particularly shy or reserved. He does rent a lot of videos and has a bunch of video equipment in his room - but this seems to be more of a serious hobby than an actual "obsession" for Benny. One day, he meets a girl around the same age outside the video store and invites her over to his family's apartment. His mother and father are out of town, so Benny hangs out with her, makes her some food, and shows her his pig-slaughter tape. When an "accident" in the apartment (which is inadvertently caught on Benny's video-camera)leaves the girl dead - Benny is at a loss for how to handle the situation - and decides to play the tape back for his parents to try to find a resolution to the situation. Benny's mother and father then have a discussion as to how to handle the problem, and come up with a "solution" that may turn out to either save or destroy their family...Again, BENNY'S VIDEO didn't turn out to be quite the film that I expected it to be. From what I had read, I thought that Benny (played by the same smarmy little bastard that played Paul in Haneke's FUNNY GAMES - though a few years younger in this film) was going to be some video-obsessed, anti-social nerd and that his family would be some sort of borderline-abusive emotional automatons - but that's really not the case here. What "I" saw, was a relatively normal (if somewhat "emotionally-absent") family that were thrust into an extremely unpleasant, yet believable situation. I think that the conversation that Benny's mother and father had after being made aware of the death of the girl held a lot of "truth" as to what lengths people will go to to protect themselves and their family, and Haneke's film shows one family's path in protecting themselves. I won't say that I necessarily agree or disagree with the decision that Benny's parents made - but I can understand them "covering" for him as much as I could understand if they had turned him in.Technically, the film is good on all ends - the acting is all believable and strong, and the cinematography is appropriately "cold" and somewhat voyeuristic (as is necessary given the subject-matter). My main gripe was with Benny's "change of heart" at the end - I feel personally that the film would have been stronger had the family just gotten on with their lives as though nothing happened. I feel this would have been even more "chilling", but apparently Haneke thought differently. Like FUNNY GAMES, I didn't find BENNY'S VIDEO particularly "disturbing" like many others apparently do - I found it to be a strong portrayal of cause-and-effect, actions-and-consequences, and a "case-study" of one family dealing with an "unfixable" situation. Personally, I found FUNNY GAMES to revel more in it's "mean-spiritedness", where as BENNY'S VIDEO was a much more "realistic" film. I can say that I'm a relative fan of Haneke's work - but I guess I just don't find his films as "shocking" and "disturbing" as others do - I find them to be well crafted stories that delve into the "darker" side of life...8/10