[Ben X Full Review] Yet No REAL Solution

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / b4

Mr. Garrioch

English Composition

November 22 2012

Yet No REAL Solution

I can categorize my worries in three sections: weight gain, academics, and human relationship. If a Genie shows up and says “Choose only one trouble you want me to solve,” then I would choose the last worry – human relationship – without any hesitation. I stop eating and exercise more when I gain weight; I stop watching cartoons and study harder when I get B from English Compositions; but I don't know what to do when I ruin my relationship.

There is one friend that I once was super close, but not now. From the moment that we started to feel this strange turbulence between us, we couldn't face each other with ease. Once I noticed one of her drawbacks, I started to find out more and more, which made me feel guilty whenever I tried to sew up our broken relationship. Then I felt fury to her for making me feel blameful; then I again felt guilty for enraging at her, who definitely did not intend to anger me. This cycle just went on and on, and I’m sure it was same for her. I finally realized that restoring relationship is one of the hardest conundrums in our life.

And this was what happened to me – conflict with "one" friend – but what if the conflict is with "many" friends? This is what Amanda Todd, a fifteen-years-old girl who left her last words on YouTube and committed suicide, experienced. Her YouTube suicide note, "My Story: Struggling, Bullying, Suicide, Self Harm", talks about how she became an outcast and how she could not break away from bullying. Just because of one little mistake she had made when she was in 7th grade, Amanda was continually tortured online (for example, being revealed a photo of her bosom on Facebook) and offline ("threw me to the ground and punched several times ... kids filmed it," states Amanda). Amanda entitled the bullying "My Never Ending Story": yes it was, broken relationship just kept on breaking deeper and deeper.

A lot of people ponder over this problem, trying to suggest solutions to free from the endless cycle of bullying. Ben X, a Belgium film released in 2007, is a fruit of the director Nic Balthazar's deliberation. Unlike "common" solutions most counselors think of – asking for parents’ active help, for example – Balthazar raises a creative solution: "online game". Ben, the protagonist of the movie, suffers from Asperger's syndrome which accompanies autism, keen response to the slightest stimulus, etc. Ben's classmates feel interest in bullying someone different from them; they make Ben stand on the table and take off his pants, film this mean prank and post it online. Balthazar presents a new character, Scarlite, an imaginary girlfriend from Archlord as a cure for Ben’s ostracization; she stops Ben from committing suicide and thinks of ingenious revenge to Ben’s classmates.

When I accessed to Ben X Facebook page, some viewers left posts about how excellent resolution this movie has. However, I could not agree to those posts; to be honest, I thought the resolution is creative, but nothing more. Suggesting online game – itself or whatever originated from it – as a solution to bullying problem is, in my opinion, dangerous and incomplete.

Consider case 1; if the online game itself is a solution to Ben’s problem – that is, if Scarlite did not show up – it is highly possible that Ben would have stirred up bloody affairs. And the movie does admit this presumption; until the middle of the movie, before Ben met Scarlite in his real life, Ben often imagined himself in computer graphics in the armour of the warrior whenever his classmates bullied him. He imagined purchasing weapons at the item store and fighting the bullies back. And Ben once really attempted to fight in real life with a sharp piece of sculpture. But online and real world was different; Ben was easily oppressed by his bullies and was harassed even more severely. Then Ben tried to commit suicide by crashing into the train, in hope to escape from current “game” he is playing. In short, online game itself could not be a desirable solution for Ben – it could lead him exert violence upon his opponents, as he does online, or kill himself, in delusory belief that his life is just another set of game.

Case 2: Scarlite, Ben’s imaginary supporter originated from the online game world, is what Balthazar actually believes to be a desirable solution. Scarlite helps Ben act a fake suicide, thereby make his bullies feel guilty over his death. And this was indeed a creative solution; the viewers extolled the twist, that set something else than bloody affairs as an ending. Yes, the creativity is accepted – but the solution does not work. When the film of Ben’s fake suicide is played in the auditorium, what the bullies feel is not remorse, but actually a greater rage toward Ben for publicizing their cruel act. This is obvious when the camera zooms up the classmates’ facial expression in the funeral – they do not show a drop of tear. When the funeral ends, the camera pictures Ben happy in the farm, alone, but not Ben happy in the class, together. That is, even with Balthazar’s creative solution, the classmates did not regret their past acts or/and accept Ben as one of them; what this solution achieved was merely removing the violence and harassment from Ben and his classmates’ broken relationship. The fact that Ben is an outcast still does not change.

Viewers of Ben X, including most of my classmates, said that they enjoyed this special and unconventional movie. Indeed, Nic Balthazar’s suggestion of Archlord as a solution to the bullying issue was original and novel. Such proposition of new idea, definitely, is praiseworthy; nevertheless, it is sorry that this ends only as a creative “attempt” that does not resolve the real problem. Overall, Ben X was an interesting, exotic movie, but its incompleteness disappointed me again for finding no real solution over broken human relationship.