...a lurid piece of business, made all the more offensive for its apparent higher aspirations.
And why are these miscreants terrorizing and murdering families? They say it's for "entertainment." Like the six o'clock news. As well as to relieve their boredom and their empty existence. Of course, the double sarcasm here is that the couple they're terrorizing seem as vacuous as the killers. Then the filmmaker goes a step further in the irony department by giving us a torture-porn flick where he presents all of the violence offscreen. More derisive humor?
Moreover, not only does the film rejoice in its wanton cruelty, it does so at an exceptionally slow pace, like a sadist playing with his prey. I tell you, putting a child in danger is the least of this film's transgressions.
Clearly, Haneke wants us to believe that all of the action is fictitious (why else have the actors make asides?), but then he presents it in such suggestively graphic detail that it's almost sickening, meant, no doubt, to confuse us further and blur the line between movie fiction and real life. Enough is enough, I say.
So, how are we to interpret all this? Does the filmmaker seriously think that viewers can't tell the difference between fictional violence and reality? Actors have been shooting one another in movies for over a hundred years, and little boys grow up with toy guns. Does that make us all voyeuristic perverts? Is Haneke advocating filmmakers not make any more violent pictures by making a violent picture himself? Or is he just mocking the audience with contradictions for his own amusement? I rather think the latter is the case, but it doesn't make the movie any easier to watch.
"Funny Games" is one grim, slow, confused, discomforting, and highly unappealing film.
Video:
Warner Bros. offer the film in two screen ratios on flip sides of the disc: 1.33:1 full-screen and 1.85:1 widescreen. The widescreen seems to provide more information to the left and right most of the time, although in selected comparisons, I saw the full-screen also providing more information left and right, so the full-screen is not a straightforward pan-and-scan. Nevertheless, I watched in widescreen.
Colors are mainly in the black-and-white, high-contrast range to highlight the film's intentionally sterile, antiseptic look, but everything is bright enough, and object delineation is fine. More than a bit of grain gives the image a proper texture but also imparts a slightly gritty look to the proceedings. Close-ups are good, but medium and long shots can be vague. The overall video quality is somewhat dark, leaving black areas devoid of much inner detailing. Then, too, the screen often looks more brilliant and glossy than real life, again probably meant to sarcastically comment on the cultured yet savage society he sees in the world.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has little to do beyond reproduce some midrange dialogue, which it does with an easy naturalness. Beyond that, there are a few environmental sounds in the surrounds--crickets, waves--and not much else. To be fair, yes, the audio does its job, as little as that is.
Extras:
You get the two screen formats I mentioned, plus a few trailers at start-up only. That's about it. I guess Warner Bros. weren't interested in spending any more money than they had to on a film that already lost them a bundle. There are twenty-three scene selections but no chapter insert, English as the only spoken language, French and Spanish subtitles, and English captions for the hearing impaired. I can't imagine what kind of extras the disc might have provided in any case.
Parting Shots:
"Funny Games" is ugly and mean-spirited, which is I guess what its creator intended. If the idea appeals to you of spending 112 minutes with high-class, well-executed torture porn, this is your film.
Moreover, not only does the film rejoice in its wanton cruelty, it does so at an exceptionally slow pace, like a sadist playing with his prey. I tell you, putting a child in danger is the least of this film's transgressions.
Clearly, Haneke wants us to believe that all of the action is fictitious (why else have the actors make asides?), but then he presents it in such suggestively graphic detail that it's almost sickening, meant, no doubt, to confuse us further and blur the line between movie fiction and real life. Enough is enough, I say.
So, how are we to interpret all this? Does the filmmaker seriously think that viewers can't tell the difference between fictional violence and reality? Actors have been shooting one another in movies for over a hundred years, and little boys grow up with toy guns. Does that make us all voyeuristic perverts? Is Haneke advocating filmmakers not make any more violent pictures by making a violent picture himself? Or is he just mocking the audience with contradictions for his own amusement? I rather think the latter is the case, but it doesn't make the movie any easier to watch.
"Funny Games" is one grim, slow, confused, discomforting, and highly unappealing film.
Video:
Warner Bros. offer the film in two screen ratios on flip sides of the disc: 1.33:1 full-screen and 1.85:1 widescreen. The widescreen seems to provide more information to the left and right most of the time, although in selected comparisons, I saw the full-screen also providing more information left and right, so the full-screen is not a straightforward pan-and-scan. Nevertheless, I watched in widescreen.
Colors are mainly in the black-and-white, high-contrast range to highlight the film's intentionally sterile, antiseptic look, but everything is bright enough, and object delineation is fine. More than a bit of grain gives the image a proper texture but also imparts a slightly gritty look to the proceedings. Close-ups are good, but medium and long shots can be vague. The overall video quality is somewhat dark, leaving black areas devoid of much inner detailing. Then, too, the screen often looks more brilliant and glossy than real life, again probably meant to sarcastically comment on the cultured yet savage society he sees in the world.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has little to do beyond reproduce some midrange dialogue, which it does with an easy naturalness. Beyond that, there are a few environmental sounds in the surrounds--crickets, waves--and not much else. To be fair, yes, the audio does its job, as little as that is.
Extras:
You get the two screen formats I mentioned, plus a few trailers at start-up only. That's about it. I guess Warner Bros. weren't interested in spending any more money than they had to on a film that already lost them a bundle. There are twenty-three scene selections but no chapter insert, English as the only spoken language, French and Spanish subtitles, and English captions for the hearing impaired. I can't imagine what kind of extras the disc might have provided in any case.
Parting Shots:
"Funny Games" is ugly and mean-spirited, which is I guess what its creator intended. If the idea appeals to you of spending 112 minutes with high-class, well-executed torture porn, this is your film.
Average user rating (1-5):
Not yet rated.
Not yet rated.
[release]23660[/release]