| Overall Grade: |
B |
|
| Story: |
C+ |
|
|
| Acting: |
A |
|
|
| Direction: |
A |
|
|
| Visuals: |
B |
|
|
A Traumatic Experience That May or May Not Be Art
by Brett (movies profile)
Jul 2, 2008
8
of
9 people found this review helpful
Full disclosure: I saw the original Funny Games some years ago, but I haven't seen the new version. However, since it was made by the same director and has been referred to as a virtual shot-for-shot remake, I think these comments still apply.
Funny Games is one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen -- so much so that I would never sit through it again. And yet, there is much about it that I admire. It took a standard genre story (home invasion) and created something totally original out of it. It was technically impressive (the direction, the acting, the cinematography, the use of sound, etc.). And, most importantly, it changed my perspective. It made me see movies in general, and thrillers in particular, in a very different way.
To a far more aggressive extent than the French New Wave of the 60s, Funny Games challenges the implicit assumptions and "contracts" that we enter into with the sorts of movies we're accustomed to watching. We just accept the ways in which cinematic violence is presented to make it entertaining to us, and assume that there's no harm in doing so. But by systematically stripping away the "entertaining" elements of the thriller and forcing the audience to empathize with the suffering of the victims, Funny Games assaults our complacency. Violence and cruelty aren't fun anymore. They're disgusting and intolerable. And we feel deeply offended by how they make us feel.
Since Funny Games almost entirely avoids the noxious rush of gross-out images (with their giddy after-effects), and the quick, amusement-park-ride editing that spares us much reflection about what we're witnessing, our emotions are much more fully engaged, and that makes the pain and fear and helplessness of the victims very hard to take.
Offensive? Extremely. But the irony is that we find ourselves so outraged and offended by a movie in which the lives and the humanity of the victims are seen as precious while acts of violent cruelty are seen as despicable. And yet we don't feel anywhere near the same reaction to the average Hollywood slaughterfest. That fact seems even more disturbing than the film itself. |
My Public Profile 
