As cruel as this film is and as hard as it is to watch it should be noted that Haneke, unlike the over-rated Oliver Stone and his Natural Born Killers (which takes on the same topics), avoids showing violence whenever possible. He has a remarkable low amount of onscreen violence and there's little gore. Heneke turns his camera away from the "money shots" at the last moment to avoid the salacious film making he's criticizing. He plays on the threat of violence and the reaction to those threats. Of course, it is in many ways harder to watch someone suffer their fear than to see them delivered from it via a beating, stabbing, shooting, etc. This is particularly true of the mortified adolescent son.

I see what Haneke is doing here, and I strongly agree with his overall point. The problem with delivering the message in this way is that it ends up feeding the beast. The film doesn't elevate itself above it's content and this being the case, it will only serve to harm those watching it. Those who would get the message don't need to see it delivered in such a blunt fashion. Those who are not inclined to see the message will only get a rush from seeing all the cruelty.


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Labels: film, movie review, Naomi Watts, Tim Roth