The Act of Killing

Joshua Oppenheimer's Oscar-nominated documentary centers on Indonesia's violent campaign against Communists and other “undesirables,” begun in the 1960s, and still being waged by powerful paramilitary groups. But the material is presented from the oddball perspective of a group of vicious perpetrators, self-styled “gangsters” who are given the opportunity to make a movie dramatizing their actions. Bringing their grisly deeds to light is worthwhile, but watching these thugs enjoying a comfortable life is galling, and it's deeply unsettling to see them playing their victims—suggesting some sort of convergence between killer and killed. The Act of Killing offers a textbook example of what Hannah Arendt called the banality—or, in this case, the absurdity—of evil, personified here in the form of Anwar Congo, an elderly, genteel man who proudly describes (and demonstrates) a method of execution with a wire noose he invented to cut down on bloodletting and clean-up time. Congo and his associates—including a publisher who identified people for interrogation that inevitably led to their deaths—are eager to talk about their history, even appearing on TV talk shows to promote their movie. But there are strangely discordant moments in which some express regret for the slaughter even as they gloat about their own roles in it. The result is a surrealistic collage that aptly reflects the opening epigram from Voltaire, who noted that murder is something that must be punished—unless it is done on a massive scale for the “public good,” in which case it is glorified. Recommended.[Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include both the theatrical version and a longer director's cut, audio commentary by executive producer Werner Herzog and director Joshua Oppenheimer, an interview with Oppenheimer on Democracy Now! (46 min.), a VICE segment with Herzog and executive producer Errol Morris (13 min.), deleted scenes (12 min.), trailers, a 40-page booklet, and a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: an excellent extras package for this Oscar-nominated documentary.] (F. Swietek)