The Act of Killing
By Alistair Lawrence,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Indonesian genocide docu has simulated violence, language.
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The Act of Killing
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What's the Story?
THE ACT OF KILLING is a documentary about the mass killings in Indonesia during its military coup in the 1960s. The documentary interviews former death squad leaders and current paramilitary figureheads about the people they killed, how they did it, and its impact on them.
Is It Any Good?
Constantly blurring the line between fact and fiction, this film won critical plaudits and an Oscar nomination or its grim retelling of a dark episode in Indonesian history. Essentially a war crimes trial in reverse, The Act of Killing's decision to give a platform to unrepentant mass murderers to re-enact their killings will likely divide viewers based on whether they find these stylized "scenes" compelling or pointless.
Its central figures, Anwar Congo and Herman Koto, embody the banality of evil as they repeatedly discuss the same atrocious acts over and over again. Maybe this is a comment by the directors about how something stops being shocking if we are exposed to it enough, but as a cinematic spectacle it makes for a documentary that occasionally piques the interest but is often quite tedious. Viewers will decide for themselves whether its climax is revelatory or just another stage managed set piece in a movie that seems content to exist in the moment of the spectacle it's created.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the violence in The Act of Killing. Did it surprise you that the interviewees had no regrets about killing so many people? How did that make you feel? Did the re-enacting of the violence feel any less brutal than if the real atrocities had been shown on screen?
Discuss some of the language used in the documentary. How do the interviewees talk about their victims? Do they seem remorseful?
What did you know about this period of history? Would you like to know more? Why do you think some historical events are better known than others?
Discuss what the filmmakers were trying to do by using movie genres, professional sets, props, and make-up techniques in the documentary. How did these techniques compare to other documentaries you might have seen?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: July 15, 2014
- Cast: Anwar Congo , Herman Koto , Syamsul Arifin
- Directors: Joshua Oppenheimer , Christine Cynn , Anonymous
- Studio: Final Cut for Real DK
- Genre: Documentary
- Topics: History
- Run time: 117 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: August 28, 2023
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