The Film In A Better World or Revenge by Susanne Bier is an incredible film about two families crossing paths because of two boys friendships. Christian and Elias become friends when Christian transfers Elias's school. Christian sees that Elias is getting bullied and decides to take matters into his own hands by severely injuring the bully, Sofus, and threatening him with a knife. After that, the two become good friends and start spending time together. One day, Elias's father takes the boys into town and after breaking up a fight between his younger son and another boy, Elias's father, Anton, is hit by the other boy's father.
While Christian and Elias are together one day they see the man who hit Anton get out of a van. They run down to the van and right down the name of his business and give it to Anton. Anton goes to the man's work with the boys and asks the man why he hit him in an attempt to teach the boys that bullies are not worth retaliation. The man hits Anton again and the boys get very angry. Christian gets angry because Anton refuses to retaliate so he creates a bomb out of the gunpowder he finds in some fireworks and the two boys plan to blow up the man's van. The boys way up early one morning and place the bombs under the van, but when Elias sees a woman and a girl running by the van he runs out to warn them and gets hit by the explosion.
The original title Haevnen, which is Dutch for revenge is a fitting title because one of the movies main themes is revenge. There are many examples of revenge in this movie: Christian hurting the bully Sofus and the boys planting the bomb under the man's car. Another example of revenge would be when Anton is working in Africa and throws the murderer to the ground and lets all of the village people kill him. However, I believe that the American title, In a Better World, is actually a better title because it embodies what the film is trying to convey. The film is trying to say that if there was no revenge or hatred we would all be living in a better world. The film shows that there is nothing good that comes out of revenge. When Christian hurts Sofus he nearly blinds him. Yes, Sofus stops bullying him, but the point is that he could have seriously hurt Sofus. When the villagers kill the murderer, they just become murderers as well. When the boys blow up the man's car, Elias almost dies. This movie shows that there is nothing good that comes out of revenge and tells us that in a better world there would be no revenge. This is why In a Better World is a more appropriate title for the film.
