Review of The Act of Killing (2012) by Thomas W — 01 Feb 2014

The southeast Asian nation of Indonesia underwent a mass genocide in 1965 following a failed coup d'état in Jakarta which was soon followed by the ouster of Indonesian leader Suharto -- who had ties to the communist party -- by Sukarno, a man who would serve as Indonesian president for over 30 years.

The mass-killings were conducted by death squads and it was seen as a purging of communists from the island nation. The death squad leaders were never tried or charged with any kind of a crime and they were more-less heralded as heroes who have served Indonesia dutifully and well.

X-amount of years later, these death squad leaders have been asked about their roles in these atrocities and have been asked to even cinematically recreate their actions in a series of vignettes for this bold and rather astounding documentary that has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.

The callous disregard of human life on display here is troubling but also mesmerizing. The doc is overly long -- 2 hours and 40 minutes -- but it kept my interest and fascination throughout its entire duration.

The film is candid and allows these men to freely express themselves ... the men believe this film will bring them even more glory. Anwar Congo (a death squad leader) takes center stage here and his revelations are shocking and ultimately surprising.

I am glad I made it to the end ... to hear what he has to say upon reflecting upon what he now sees on film. He starts asking questions he doesn't really like the answers to ... and if it has taken cinema to do this, I say brilliant.

This won't be for everybody ... but wow.