The Act of Killing (2012)
About This Movie
The perpetrators of Indonesia's 1965 mass killings, in which an estimated 500,000 to one million people were murdered, are invited to reenact their crimes in whatever cinematic genre they choose, and the result is a surreal, deeply disturbing document of what happens when killers are celebrated as heroes by their own society. Joshua Oppenheimer directed a film that challenges every assumption about how documentaries should address atrocity.
Why It's a Classic
Oppenheimer's central insight was devastating in its simplicity: the killers won, they were never punished, and they live openly as powerful figures in Indonesian society, so what happens when you give them a camera and ask them to tell their own story? Anwar Congo, the film's primary subject, cheerfully demonstrates his preferred killing method (a wire garrote) on the rooftop where he murdered hundreds of people, and then performs a cha-cha. The film's use of genre reenactments, including musical numbers, gangster films, and western sequences, creates a collision between cinematic fantasy and real atrocity that is unlike anything else in documentary history. The most remarkable moment comes near the end, when Congo, having played a victim in one of his own reenactments, begins to retch on the rooftop where he killed, and you watch a man confront, for possibly the first time, the physical reality of what he did. Whether this constitutes genuine remorse or performative guilt for the camera is a question the film wisely refuses to answer.
Fun Fact
Many of the Indonesian crew members are credited as 'Anonymous' because they feared government reprisal for participating in a film that challenged the official narrative of the killings. Oppenheimer originally came to Indonesia to make a documentary about plantation workers and only learned about the killings through their stories. Werner Herzog and Errol Morris serve as executive producers. The film was screened for the Indonesian public and contributed to a national reckoning about the 1965 events, though the perpetrators have still never been prosecuted.
Parent Note
The film contains detailed descriptions and casual reenactments of mass murder, including strangulation, throat slitting, and the killing of ethnic Chinese Indonesians. The perpetrators' lack of remorse and their celebration by Indonesian society is deeply disturbing on a conceptual level. Some reenactment sequences include graphic imagery. Strong language. Not rated. This is a film for mature adult viewers with strong stomachs and an interest in understanding how societies process (or fail to process) mass violence.
Quick Facts
- Year
- 2012
- Type
- 🎬 Movie
- Category
- Documentary
- Age Group
- Adults (Ages 18+)