1097. The Look of Silence

The Look of Silence
2014
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer

Well, I made it about 13 minutes into this documentary before crying. I think that is fairly laudable. I am usually a stone cold movie watcher (I didn't even cry at Coco! Coco!) but of course, this is all too real.

About two years ago, I reviewed The Act of Killing, the companion piece of this film. As a quick recap, it wrecked me and I've been slowly picking up the pieces of my soul ever since. I decided to ruin my life again in the midst of the pandemic, because why not? This time around, a middle aged Indonesian man (Adi) interviews former death squad members under the pretext of fitting them with glasses. Oh yeah, and to make it extra devastating, his own brother was killed by the same squad members during the communist purge.

So once again, we have to watch these old men giggle and reenact the murders they perpetuated as we fruitlessly search for signs of remorse. Oddly enough, Adi seemed to find those signs of guilt, or maybe he just needed to believe they were sorry for his own peace of mind. Either way, it is incredibly powerful to have a man try to convince you his brother's killers aren't total monsters.

I just read a disaster of a novel, Hadrian the Seventh, for my book blog. It made me wonder if art is ever capable of correcting things. I would be curious to hear my readers' opinions on that. Maybe with art, it's not about fixing things, it's about healing.

RATING: Seems icky to rate this one

Interesting Facts:

Adi and his family moved to the other side of the country for their own safety.

1053. The Act of Killing

The Act of Killing
2012
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer

How do you even begin to review a documentary like this? I don't know if I have ever seen anything so perverse committed to film and I really hope I never will again.

Basically, the director asked former death squad leaders to reenact the mass killings they perpetrated in whatever manner they want. They do this in the style of Hollywood gangster movies, musical numbers, and one bizarre scene that looked like an outtake of Flaming Creatures. The film is intercut with some interviews and other footage of Anwar Congo just...living his life.

What a surreal experience, watching these men together. They discussed their killings like they were old friends from high school, reliving their glory days as football stars. They argued over whether one looked good in red or not. Like most people watching, I spent the whole viewing time searching for signs of remorse and never really got any.  There were glimpses, here and there, but were they genuine? It's hard to say. But it's a noble goal to humanize killers. Not for their sake, but for ours. We need to know how easy it is to justify violence and slip into the roles of monsters.

Anyway, that was very upsetting and I have to go talk to some ice cream about this.

RATING: Seems pretty inappropriate in this case. Let's just say it's worth seeing.

Interesting Facts:

49 members of the crew were credited as anonymous, as they feared revenge from death squad killers.