What if God is a psychopath?

If that questions bothers you then you probably shouldn’t watch Funny Games. Also that’s a spoiler warning.

I don’t have a lot of time to write these anymore because college, so I’m afraid I can’t polish this as much as I’d like to so I’ll get to the point. I think that might be a run-on sentence.

Anyway, Funny Games is a movie about two psychopaths that kill rich white people.

The end.

Just kidding. Well, that is what the movie is about, but there’s a lot more to that.

You see, Funny Games is a commentary on domestic life styles, common human practices, family interactions, and even writing.

The setting of Funny Games, the first characters we meet, and the pleasantries these characters carry all tell us that things are going to be okay. The classy music and the relaxed demeanor of the family in the opening scene says that this family vacation is off to a good start, and we’re all about to have a good time. However, the title card and the heavy metal screamo music (I believe the song is called, “bone head,”) indicates that everything is not okay.

Here’s where we see commentary on domestic lifestyle. The family is really wealthy and enjoy stereotypical rich people things like golf. The family, and the dog, don’t get along completely well, but it works. I think that this slight tension in the family sets an undertone for human psychology. I know that's open ended, so I'll try my best with an example. The best example I can give is the scene where the dog Lucky (get it? [that’s not even my joke, that’s a joke in the movie itself]) starts nosing the refrigerator. The wife, Ann, asks her husband to call the dog so that the dog will stop bothering her. However, I sense that a part of her wanted to take the dog by the ear and yank her back painfully for getting in the way. Of course, Ann doesn’t do that because she’s not a terrible person that likes hurting animals. That would be violent and unnecessary, like movies!

Movies are violent and unnecessary. Ah but the entertainment! The entertainment that comes from violence is glorious isn’t it? Boxing is fun to watch too, especially if someone gets knocked out, indicating that he/she’s really been hurt. Of course, we must all maintain our manners. When we watch a movie about, I don’t know, say, people dying from torture that may or may not have to do with jigsaw puzzles, we should be quiet as to not disturb the others sitting next to us. That would be rude. We should also remember to be polite to everyone (make sure to give a firm handshake) even if we would rather see that person get hit by a train.

That monologue you just read (or skimmed through, I dunno) is what Funny Games is about (and a lot of other things, but mostly that).

This movie is hard to watch. It features suffering with glimpses of hope that things will get better, glimpses that are snatched away by Peter and Paul, the two psychopathic antagonists in the plot (also Peter and Paul might be God and Michael The Arch Angel, but that's a whole other thing).

Peter and Paul constantly mock the idea that things are fine and dandy. They take advantage of the manners that Ann and George offer to them when they first meet each other. With that, Peter and Paul continue to demonstrate very well refined manners as they torment people.

The gates that acts to protect the family traps them, turning an attempt at security and safety against those it's designed to protect.

It's all just a game too! There are clear rules, follow them and you'll survive. Right?

No.

Here's the Aesthetic Exhilaration (I know I shouldn't be capitalizing those).

There is no hope. You're only given the illusion of hope. You see, the point of making the challenges (like saying a prayer backwards) in Funny Games is to give the family, and therefore the audience, hope that the protagonists can make it through and that things will get better. Hope that justice will be found, and a resolution can be made (that's a sentence fracture I think). Paul even mocks us - the audience - for thinking such things. Who says things will get better? They can always get worse, and most of the time, because the world is so big, and we, as people, are so small, can do nothing about it.

Now it's time for what I think, is the best scene in the movie. Lets say you find hope. Lets say you manage to pick up a shotgun and blast away a very bad problem in your life. Then God picks up a remote control, rewinds that part, and clocks you in the head with the very shotgun you were trying to use, and shoots your husband with it. It's funny how she was just done praying during that scene.

My favorite scene is when Peter starts watching TV. He watches long enough that the audience might start to relax a little as they're distracted by what's happening on the screen. There isn't hope that things will get better. Maybe there's hope that we can forget about it all. Of course, Paul lets us know that reality will be right there with us any moment to eradicate the pleasures of escapism.

I'm afraid I'll have to end this analysis here. This is my fault - I bit off more than I can chew with this one. Funny Games has so much depth to it that, for an analysis that would do it justice, would be much longer - and much more well written, than what I have here.

Deadlines call however.

My name is Syto.

I talk about writing.