In a Better world or Revenge directed by Susanne Beir is a
compelling story of revenge and regret. The film describes two friends crossing
paths and dealing with the childhood problems of bulling in their own way. Their
taste for revenge starts when another student bullies Elias and Christian intervenes
and severely beats she bully and threatens him with a knife. This epic scene affects
each of the boys and begins to morally define them. When the two boys go into
town, their father Anton is struck by another man wheel trying to intervene in
a fight between two of the children. The two boys soon after see the man who
hit Elias’s father they tell Anton about where the man worked. The father
decided to bring the boys in to confront the man where again Anton is beat by
the bully.
After
seeing this the boys decide to blow up the man's van to teach him a lesson
about bullying. Christian creates the bomb out off old fireworks and plants in
on the van. But when the boys decide to detonate the bomb Elias sees a woman
and her child within the blast radius of the van. Elias in an attempt to warn
them is caught in the blast.
Through
the film the boys slowly loose their moral sensitivity by seeing how the men
treat each other and how cruel the world is. They are so enraged that they will
go to any lengths to get their revenge or so they think. The scene when Elias
blows up is more about redemption then it is anything else. Elias reaches out
to try and save the pedestrians proving that he truly is a moral person.
I enjoyed reading your blog. Your portrayal of the title Revenge is accurate. The boys do not think of the consequences of their actions when they blow up the van. I did have a different interpretation of Elias, who was more reluctant to carry out revenge. This is why he did not fight back when he was bullied by the school boys. Elias’s father had a lot to do with the way Elias reacted to bullying. His father did not believe retaliation was the best form of making the world a better place. Christian was more consumed by anger and pain for losing his mother and for him, revenge was redemption.
ReplyDeleteAlso, did you know the title, In a Better World, was more about forgiving than regret? Elias’s family was all about forgiving the person as a way of showing that giving in to emotions is a sign of weakness. It is interesting that the title was changed from Revenge to In a Better World, to suit the American audience. My interpretation is that, the director wanted to capture American ideology, values and principles. To show young boys acting out on revenge, especially making bombs and blowing a van amounts to terrorism.