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Angela Winkler, Ulrich Mühe

For 14-year-old Benny, anything recorded on videotape is inherently better and more real than what he can see with his naked eyes. He is barely noticed by his professional parents and spends most of h... read more read more...is time either viewing wild and violent films or looking at the view outside his window through his video camera. One day, on a whim, he invites a girl to his house and coolly murders her while his video camera is rolling. Then he hides the body temporarily in his closet and goes off to a party. The calm and unexcited way his parents discuss the situation when he explains it to him, using his video film to demonstrate, makes it clear that his own psychopathology has a long background in that of his parents. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Flixster Users

76% liked it

4,104 ratings

Critics

33% liked it

6 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 45 min.

Directed by: Michael Haneke

Release Date: January 1, 1992

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DVD Release Date: May 16, 2006

Stats: 295 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (295)

  • itsjustme2004
    October 12, 2010
    itsjustme2004
    This movie is as slow as slow can be but the handfull of times that it is interesting are...well...very, very interesting. I had almost turned it off at 23 min into it, then at 28 min into it I was absolutely stunned and frozen in my seat! This movie is disturbing, but I also wil... read morel never forget it. Ever. It definitely is worth sticking it out till the end.
  • fb100000458003440
    August 2, 2011
    fb100000458003440
    A very interesting message delivered in the most soul-suckingly boring way possible.
  • shitfaced8
    October 30, 2011
    shitfaced8
    Another superb film from Michael Haneke exploring the psychological effects of our violence obsessed culture. This time focusing on Benny, a 14 year old who spends most of his time watching violent films. To him the world depicted on the screen is even more real than the outside ... read moreworld, even going so far as to cover his windows, and only looking at the view outside from what his camera is displaying the screen. One day he invites a girl to his home, and eventually murders her with a slaughterhouse gun, filming the whole thing. He shows no clear signs of remorse or emotion and goes to a party. A few days later her shows his parents the film and they help him cover up the murder.

    Michael Haneke covers similar terrain in his later film Funny Games, albeit in a different way here. The message he is trying to get across is make beleive violence in movies desensitizes us, to real life violence on screen (news footage etc), desensitizes us for the real thing. His parents are just only slightly less cold and detached when they see the footage, as they too are a product of western cultures preoccupation with death and destruction. While I don't really agree with Haneke that people who enjoy watching make believe violence in movies are automatically desensitized to the real life violence of the real world, I do always enjoy watching his films as they force the audience to ask themselves questions that they might not be comfortable with confronting. Personally I enjoy watching many different types of films that feature excessive violence from Rambo to Cannibal Holocaust, I loathe and abhor violence in real life. When I saw the video 'three Russian with a Hammer' I was profoundly disturbed by the images I saw and felt no pleasure or excitement, but rather disgust and repulsion.

    Still exploring the effects on the mind of a culture who sees thousands of deaths on screen every year, is an important subject to explore, as I don't think anyone can deny that our culture is facinated by violence. Best case scenario this film should provoke discussion amongst those who see it. The violence on display here is not sensationalized or exploitative, but will disturb its viewers. (Especially vegatarians (the opening scene scene is footage of a pig being shot in the head at a slaughter house)), and so will not be for all tastes, but those who want to see a challenging movie, with food for thought, could do a lot worse than checking out this earlier Haneke film. A must see as far as I'm concerned.
  • jimbotender
    October 4, 2009
    jimbotender
    A haunting piece of art,Benny is like a neo-structuralist child of the remnants of Nazi youth.The repetitive violence he's self-subdued into,unbeknown to his parents leads us to a powerful question,that of the worth of human responsibility.
  • cacutshaw
    October 5, 2007
    cacutshaw
    Very good film. The first Haneke film I saw and was really impressed. Bleak, depressing and well told.
  • fredcaligula
    April 16, 2012
    fredcaligula
    A great film, would have been one of the most relevant of its day if the critics had bothered to sip their protein packs.
  • MARS9T8D4
    April 11, 2011
    MARS9T8D4
    A teenaged boy aspires for attention from his parents in the most extreme of ways in this dark exploration of the family structure.
  • sleepykiss
    September 6, 2010
    sleepykiss
    Opening sequence was of a farmer shooting a pig in the head, extremely graphic. I couldnt get past this, made me ill (& I grew up on a farm.) I guess this will be a MHaneke film Ill never see.

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Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy
July 21, 2009
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

The second panel in Haneke's trilogy (preceded by Seventh Continent and followed by 71 Fragments) offers a chilling and haunting postmodern look at isolation, alienation and violence, with a critique ... Full Review

Anton Bitel
February 26, 2008
Anton Bitel, Eye for Film

To Benny, and to us, too (at least for the duration of the film) the mediated image - blinkered, manipulable, vicarious - is the 'reality' of choice. Full Review

Nick Schager
April 18, 2007
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

[Makes] arguments that Haneke delivers with frosty menace but, alas, an also typically pedantic, haranguing tenor. Full Review

Derek Smith
August 19, 2006
Derek Smith, Cinematic Reflections

Similar to The Seventh Continent, this film's objective is to analyze and deconstruct the effects rather than senselessly guess their causes Full Review

Keith Breese
June 6, 2006
Keith Breese, Filmcritic.com

in the end, with a character that repellent and a message so heavy handed, there is no need to commit ourselves to this bitter, merciless film. Full Review

Eric Henderson
May 3, 2006
Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine

A smug, contemptuous, passive-aggressive attack on the dehumanizing effects of media. Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
May 6, 2006
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

Click to read the article Full Review

Stephen Holden
May 6, 2006
Stephen Holden, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

June 24, 2006
Time Out

Click to read the article Full Review

May 6, 2006
Film4

Click to read the article Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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