The Reality of the Image: A Brief Overview Benny's Video

  Benny's Video  offers two quandaries first, what is reality? Second, why is society so enthralled with the idea of the image to the extent where they negate the powerful effect it has on the human psyche? The film answers these questions in rather an alarming and unsettling way. It in fact does not so much answer these questions as it does illustrate how powerful the image can be.

  The film  offers a portrait of an average family (father, mother son,) albeit one where the father and mother  are distant and unaware of their son's struggles. As a result Benny (the son) tries to find acceptance and understanding in the realities of television and film. His gravitation towards these realities however, makes him forget what is real and what is not.  Benny's  separation from his parents also makes him seek out a relationship with a young girl.

This relationship  shows Benny’s need for connection, a connection that is real and not as it were constructed by the  idea of the family structure, or the illusion of television and film. As the relationship progresses however, Benny realizes that his need for connection  is not shared by this young girl. Thus, Benny again separates himself from that  which he perceives as unreal, and   kills the  girl in an attempt to reconnect with reality

This is suggested as the film concludes  when Benny is asked  why he  killed her, his answer : "I just wanted to know how it felt". This answer can be seen in two ways. The first, Benny just wanted to know how it felt to kill another human being. The second, Benny just wanted to know what "Reality" feels like and the only way he could achieve that feeling was to kill another human being. Though both answers are valid and belong in the conversation it is the second answer that leads to a more interesting line of thought.

 Benny is a  aware of the true "Reality" and yet he is trapped within his own reality, a reality dictated by what he views on the screens that dominate his life. Therefore, he kills the girl in order to merge these two  realities. As a result of this merger Benny begins to form  relationships with his parents. However, these relationships ultimately end  the same way they did with the girl, with Benny alone and disconnected.

 Benny's video is a film that not only examines the illusion of reality in television and film, but also the power of the image to affect and manipulate to the extent where the line between reality and fiction is non-existent. The film is a caution, not so much against overconsumption or  violent content,  but instead against forgetting how powerful the image is, and how a filmmaker  has power to manipulate that image for good or ill.