Besides allowing Haneke to bring up skinheads and concentration camp inmates, why does Benny shave his head? And then punch his friend? Is it a strategem to appear troubled by what he's done, and make his parents feel sorry for him? Or does he just act randomly?
share[deleted]
I think it was a way to get his parents to notice him. Not feel sorry for him, necessarily, just notice him.
Some velvet morning when I'm straight...
And for the audience to see that the parents' reaction was stronger to the shaving of the head than to the confession and subsequent covering up of the murder. Like there was a bigger problem in looking like someone who kills or acts in a violent way than in being one who had actually committed the act.
shareIn Taxi Driver (1976) the De Niro character also shaved his head while he was "going crazy". And also the Harrelson character in Natural Born Killers (1994). For some reason, shaving one's head is associated with going crazy, being antisocial, or something similar. That's before, the shaving became very widespread.
share