I never realized the extent to which big-budget American action films condition audiences into savoring and craving `justifiable' acts of violence until I saw this fascinating and deeply disturbing Austrian movie from noted German director Michael Haneke. I couldn't sleep after seeing it, but after about a week had passed, I was very glad that I'd seen it. I'm now `immune' from being manipulated into enjoying onscreen violence, because the movie made me keenly aware of when I AM being manipulated
and of the `commandments' that movies featuring cathartically satisfying acts of vengeance are built upon and dare not violate.
The storyline is sort of a hybrid of THE DESPERATE HOURS and CAPE FEAR, with two very Aryan-looking young men invading the summer cottage of an upper-middle-class family of three and sadistically playing `funny games' with them. But there's much more than the surface story at work here Haneke has some clever tricks up his sleeve when it comes to exercising his total control over the `rules' that the movie plays by. He keeps the audience off-balance by repeatedly violating movie conventions and confounding conditioned expectations as to how events will unfold.
Amazingly, there's only ONE act of on-screen violence in the entire movie and it's a classic example of the 100% acceptable, `justifiable' sort that American audiences so crave and Hollywood so obligingly provides on a regular basis. But just as your `rush' kicks in, Haneke pulls the carpet out from underneath you with one of his sleight-of-hand tricks, flip-flopping your pleasure into an equivalent amount of pain. And as for the RESULTS of the OFF-screen violence well, you're on your own.
Special kudos should go out to actors Arno Frisch and Frank Giering, for being willing to play what must be the creepiest, most contemptible crime duo in movie history. (The hillbillies in DELIVERANCE have NOTHING on them!) It takes fearlessness to make yourself a target for audience detestation at this level, and the film wouldn't work if the roles hadn't been so capably filled.
Know going in that the `See it if you dare' challenge on the DVD cover is not to be taken lightly. But know also that if you DO take the challenge, you'll emerge from the experience shaken but wiser in possession of a whole new perspective on the bogusness of traditional Hollywood crowd-pleasing violence.
The storyline is sort of a hybrid of THE DESPERATE HOURS and CAPE FEAR, with two very Aryan-looking young men invading the summer cottage of an upper-middle-class family of three and sadistically playing `funny games' with them. But there's much more than the surface story at work here Haneke has some clever tricks up his sleeve when it comes to exercising his total control over the `rules' that the movie plays by. He keeps the audience off-balance by repeatedly violating movie conventions and confounding conditioned expectations as to how events will unfold.
Amazingly, there's only ONE act of on-screen violence in the entire movie and it's a classic example of the 100% acceptable, `justifiable' sort that American audiences so crave and Hollywood so obligingly provides on a regular basis. But just as your `rush' kicks in, Haneke pulls the carpet out from underneath you with one of his sleight-of-hand tricks, flip-flopping your pleasure into an equivalent amount of pain. And as for the RESULTS of the OFF-screen violence well, you're on your own.
Special kudos should go out to actors Arno Frisch and Frank Giering, for being willing to play what must be the creepiest, most contemptible crime duo in movie history. (The hillbillies in DELIVERANCE have NOTHING on them!) It takes fearlessness to make yourself a target for audience detestation at this level, and the film wouldn't work if the roles hadn't been so capably filled.
Know going in that the `See it if you dare' challenge on the DVD cover is not to be taken lightly. But know also that if you DO take the challenge, you'll emerge from the experience shaken but wiser in possession of a whole new perspective on the bogusness of traditional Hollywood crowd-pleasing violence.