What Is The Act Of Killing Essay

Jack Shaevitz

4/26/14

Sautin

The Act of Killing

The Act of Killing, a documentary directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, examines the genocide in Indonesia from 1965-1966. Oppenheimer contacted various perpetrators of the massacres and asked them to recreate their crimes in any form they desired. Some of the murders at first seemed very excited about Oppenheimer’s project, claiming to know the “truth” of what happened and that this history should be revealed, so that young people and communists do not forget the past. The “truth” for them is their sustained heroism and murder against the so-called communists, their families and even descendants. But their reaction slowly changes when some of them start to become aware that the people they killed were ordinary human beings, not merely objects to be killed and tortured. In the film, the re-enactment of the events of 1965, with plenty of makeup to show the brutality, has made them aware that their victims have undergone massive trauma and suffering. The role reversals seem to have a huge impact on Anwar Congo, who plays his own victims. This film has made fiction become “reality” for the perpetrators, whereas before, the reality was some kind of fiction for them: the mass-murder, as Anwar admitted, was some kind of manifestation of his imagination influenced by gangster movies. The protective screen they put up that prevented a deeper moral crisis was the cinematic screen: as in their real killings and torture, the men experienced their role play as a re-enactment of cinematic models. Thus they experienced fiction as reality. During their massacres, the men imitated Hollywood gangsters, cowboys and even a musical dancer. This was an attempt to mask what had really happened and pretend it...

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...ore the massacres. Like Congo, he has a sense of disbelief over what he has become. Yet at the same time, he enjoys and relishes the power that comes with his control. He aspires to be a politician because of the money that he can make. He regularly extorts chinese businessmen to maintain his sense of power. This need for control is a way for him to clamp down on his feelings of guilt and shame over what he did.

At the end of this movie, the viewer is left to contemplate what this all means. Do the perpetrators feel any real remorse? Do they understand what they did and why it is wrong? The idea that they feel no contrition is chilling and frightening. One of the things that we hold onto is the sense of good in humanity. That we can 'fight' the evil in the world. The idea that they embrace evil and have no compunction is counter to the human condition and optimism.