From this vantage point, the last half hour of "The Act of Killing" surveys a divinely art directed stretch of hell. A similar semantic-ethical discussion unfolds briefly in “The Act of Killing.” “War crimes are defined by the winners,” a killer asserts. "We shouldn't look brutal," says the leader of the Pancasila youth, after watching a baying mob whipping themselves into an axe-wielding frenzy. At this point, we appear to have reached the nadir of the human condition, the very heart of darkness. I'm absolutely aware that we were cruel. We found, that the use of fictionalization in The Act of Killing has several consequences. Review: The Act of Killing. (Later on, while taking a break from filming a reenactment of a village massacre, he reminisces wistfully with his buddies about raping fourteen year-old girls. In … Instead, they have written their own triumphant history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries. When we arrive at the top, the view is majestic in its sadness. Anwar Congo is one of a group of unrepentant former members of an Indonesian death squad who in The Act of Killing were challenged to re-enact some of their many murders in the style of the American movies they love. The Act of Killing Select a Page: HOME TRAILER STILLS SYNOPSIS NEWS STATEMENTS AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS BACKGROUND REACTIONS SEE THE FILM THE FILMMAKERS PRESS (IMAGES) PRESS (TEXT) CONTACT & INFO Play Since we have been questioning rather than concluding, we have not reached a … They jump at the chance offered by this documentary's maker, Joshua Oppenheimer, to make their own movie, a chronicle of their years carrying out an anti-Communist purge that claimed over a million lives in 1965-66. Quick to reassure the gangsters that "I'm not criticizing what we're doing," he describes finding his stepfather's body under an oil barrel the next day. Interspersed with such harrowing footage are the surreal musical sequences in which the ghosts of the dead appear at the foot of a waterfall to thank their killers for sending them to heaven; even in his most hallucinogenic moments, Alejandro Jodorowsky himself could not have dreamed up images to match such eeriness. Movies are a constant topic of conversation, with the techniques and fashion tips of Hollywood's outlaw icons providing perverse inspiration for hustlers whose mantra is that "gangster" means "free man". The Act of Killing: Perspectives in Psychology The producers of this film exposed the ghastly and terrible mass executions of those who were accused of being a communists in Indonesia in 1965-1966. with the analysis being the basis of our discussions. This is the smiliest atrocity documentary I've ever seen. One of the more excruciating recurring motifs here is the sight of present-day civilians doing their best real-life acting whenever these gangsters are around. Top Tag’s. Words. Search "It was as if we were killing… happily," says the elderly Anwar Congo, recalling the heyday of legitimised slaughter, demonstrating the easiest way to strangle a man with a length of wire and a piece of wood. For Educational Purposes Only. Like some horrendous real-life version of Man Bites Dog, we spend the next two hours in the company of laughing, joking mass-murderers, blithely revisiting their blood-drenched past in a manner that is at once insanely surreal and distressingly domestic. Killing is not necessarily a cold business, and killers are not necessarily cold-blooded. It appears that longstanding corruption has solidified into a core Indonesian principle, like democracy or capitalism. These are just a few of the tips offered by hired murderer Anwar Congo in the documentary The Act of Killing, released at cinemas recently to a rapturous reception. 'The Act of Killing' is an horrendous account of the brutality and slaughter carried out by the military during its overthrow of the Indonesian government in 1965, killing over a million. I'm wearing a plaid shirt, camouflage pants, saddle shoes…" He advises the film's costumer not to dress him like that for the massacre scenes. The Act of Killing looks at a fantasy inside another fantasy inside another fantasy — and they all emerge, converge and discharge in massive mayhem. ethics narrative child abuse lord of the flies holocaust hamlet slaves childhood obesity critical civil rights movement translation all quiet on the western front commentary electoral college beowulf. The visual and aural rhythms of this one feel as if Oppenheimer is slowly, carefully climbing a mountain of lament and shame, each footfall made with absolute certainty that there's solid, (if jagged and painful) rock underneath. I'm not sure even the film's powerhouse executive producers, Werner Herzog and Errol Morris, have ever presented cognitive havoc so densely yet elegantly packed into one documentary. Though his methods differ from Mr. Lanzmann’s, and his aims are less comprehensive, the 38-year-old filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer undertakes a similar inquiry in “The Act of Killing,” his … The Act of Killing is about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. The Act of Killing is as much Anwar's film as Oppenheimer's. 1026 Words 5 Pages. We see politicians make speeches proudly declaring that they are gangsters, careful to remind the crowd that the term "gangster" in their society only means "free man." the act of killing Essay Examples. Yet in the midst of this horror, something begins to dawn upon the killers; the idea that what they are doing might be wrong. This is never an easy film to watch, not least because of the apparent complicity and co-operation of those who wreaked such inhuman havoc – the word "Anonymous" appears frequently (and ominously) in the credits. A documentary which challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers. Decapitations are re-enacted with cheap make-up and gory props, livers fed to gawping dead heads. Role reversals add to the impact, with killers playing their victims, stumbling toward something resembling empathy, seeing their own actions as if for the first time – finally real, only when unreal. Thanks to the documentary genre, I have watched hundreds of hours of war crimes, genocides and miscarriages of justice carried out by unremarkable men with dimly lit souls. THE ACT OF KILLING is about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. Financial analysis of The Act of Killing (2013) including budget, domestic and international box office gross, DVD and Blu-ray sales reports, total earnings and profitability. There's never been a shortage of dark, grim documentaries that catalog life's cruelty, horrors and banality of evil. "The Act of Killing" introduces us to several Indonesian mass murderers who could be movie stars. Aaron Hutchins; Brian D. Johnson; Adnan R. Khan; Anne Kingston; Stephen Maher; Jason Markusoff; Leah McLaren; David Moscrop; Pam Palmater; Shannon Proudfoot; Evan Solomon Browse The Act of Killing news, research and analysis from The Conversation The Act of Killing – Berita, Riset, dan Analisis – The Conversation – laman 1 Edisi To begin with, "The Act of Killing" is real — or as real as things can be when you ask the men who perpetrated mass killings in Indonesia to tell and show (and film) their own version of events. It's not the communists who were cruel. 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