The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2013)

[warren oates]

That link works for me in the U.S. Oppenheimer, as expected, is incredibly well spoken. Didn't know that Guardian hit piece could conceivably have influenced the voting, as it was still possible to vote when it was published. They do note that every vote counts and cite The Fog of War's margin of victory as two or three votes.

[dustybooks]

Oppenheimer responds at greater length here. Quite an interesting piece.

[TMDaines]

I don't dispute that the recreations are an interesting device and reveal a lot of interesting attitudes. My problem with them is that they're like high school improvs from hell and they go on forever, way past their capacity to reveal anything new. Obviously, this should be less of a problem in the shortened cut.

For what it's worth, I felt the same about the reenactments, but I was even watching the shorter cut that was shown on Sky Atlantic last week. They were the weakest part of the film for me, especially as it progressed, and they really added nothing once you'd seen the first couple for some of the blackest comedy imaginable and the delusions of obscene and vile grandeur. The role and status of the killers in the wider society was of far greater interest.

[Sonmi451]

I finally got to see this film the other night, and while I certainly found it affecting, I was left with a few reservations, including some already mentioned in this thread. One issue of course is the fact that the CIA was not mentioned a single time, but I was also troubled by the scene in which

SpoilerShow

Anwar forces his grandchildren to watch one of the reenactments, and we hear Oppenheimer object, "No Anwar, it's too violent." This coming after previous reenactments that included children being forced to participate, ending up hysterical and seemingly fearing for their lives, as well as the scenes where real shop-owners are extorted by local mafia, all for Oppenheimer's camera.

--I'm fascinated by the relationship between organized street criminals, higher level political corruption and the genocide. Am I wrong in feeling that, in this respect -- gangsters running death squads -- the mass killings in Indonesia are unique? It would be like Tony Soprano running the SS or something. Has anything like that ever happened anywhere else?

In fact, throughout history death squads have been largely comprised of/recruited from the most violent criminals within a society. Thugs, gangsters, rapists, and murderers tend to be the most reliable when the aim is to terrorize and murder your fellow citizens. In a recent context, the U.S. (i.e. CIA) has utilized the tactic almost without fail since the end of WWII, in their imperial adventures abroad, from Guatemala, Chile, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, to Iraq, Libya, Syria and currently in Ukraine, among many others (indeed including Indonesia).