The Act of Killing is a documentary from 2012 about the Indonesian
death squads.
The
first thing I need to say is that it was amazing. I will be writing about many
things that happen, but I don't feel that they are spoilers, because viewing
would not be spoiled. It is not knowing what happens, but seeing how it feels
for those involved. Viewing is an intense experience, but recommended.
The
director Joshua Oppenheimer had not originally intended to tell the story the
way it went, but those who had been victimized during that time period were
reluctant to talk, and the death squad members were eager to talk.
That
probably ended up being for the best. Since they came from movie theater gangs
and loved film, many are willing to reenact their past, using film techniques. A
traditional approach could be very moving and educational, but what you get
instead, seeing killers comfortable with their acts, and then bragging, and
then maybe not so comfortable has an impact that you wouldn't easily expect.
It's
a rather unique situation. It's not that there haven't been other genocides,
but usually there is a general consensus that it was wrong afterward, like Post
World War II Germany, or the perpetrators were Communists, where even if there
is just as much tyranny as fascism resulting, there is this idea of the
collective, and that is was for the people. (I'm not saying that the reasoning
isn't fallacious, but that it does have an impact.)
Here
the slaughter was against the Communists. Instead, the heroes were gangsters,
and people refer over and over to how their word for "gangster" comes
from "free man", so these are people who go their own way. It is the
individual, and someone who is strong.
(Their
word is based on the Dutch preman.)
This
mindset makes it not terribly surprising when you see a militia leader shaking
down Chinese merchants for "donations" to his group, or a political
candidate gleefully calculating how much money he can make by threatening
building code enforcement, whether there are violations or not. He loses, not
because of that, but because he does not give out enough gifts during his
campaigning. It is a gangster society, built upon protection money, bribes, and
corruption.
There
are a lot of interesting things about the movie, and things that you can think
about and wonder about a lot. One thing that struck me was two of the main
killers, Anwar and Adi, visiting with a newspaper reporter. The reporter
commented on how smooth they must have been, because he never suspected that
these interrogations and killings were going on right above his head. Adi, with
some enjoyment I believe, points out that it basically means he was a lousy
reporter, because they were not hiding anything. Normally that would just make
me think about failure of the press, except for the way the reporter's face
changes when he is told that his boss was in charge. His shock is so personal,
that it takes him from a frustrating failure of a journalist to a person coming
up against something he was not ready for.
The
conversations are important to have, and the movie has been facilitating many
conversations, but I want to emphasize how important the "acting",
and staging, ended up being.
First
of all, things came out. Anwar ends up being the main character, and he is
charming. You see him being very sweet and gentle with his grandsons and an
injured duck. You also see him demonstrating using a wire to strangle people,
because beating them to death was too messy, with blood all over the place and
stinking if you didn't clean it up. And you see him doing a little dance
talking about this, but then there is also a list of substances used that keeps
getting longer, and you see it has taken a toll that has not truly been
acknowledged.
A
little later they are using a neighbor to play the part of a Communist facing
interrogation, and as they are talking before he is smiling and laughing, but
then he shares a story that maybe they could use, about his stepfather's
murder. The feeling changes as they decide the story is too complicated to
share, but there is a hurt that has come up, and as they act out the torture
the neighbor is just a mess, but then after he is changed.
To
me it felt like he had suppressed that grief and everything bad it had done to
him for years, and now it was back. He will have to face it, but there was a
hollowness before, and there can be something there now. It felt like he was
going to come to terms with it. The film gave him a chance to speak about it,
and it gave him a chance to feel what his stepfather and others might have
felt, and he can move forward.
With
greater involvement in the process, there is a greater effect on Anwar. As he
takes on the role of someone interrogated and executed and beheaded, it becomes
physically harder for him. His sidekick Herman is having a great time playing
with the fake organs, but Anwar is looking ill. He says he could not do the
scene again, and the end has him basically dry-heaving at the same spot where
we saw him cheerfully talking about his killing methods and dancing at the
beginning.
Before
the physical breakdown, but after watching the scene where he "dies",
Anwar gets contemplative, wondering if he did wrong, and saying he knows now
how those men felt. This is one of the view spots where you hear Oppenheimer's
voice, as he argues that Anwar knew it was pretend, but those men knew they
were really going to die, and it was not the same. Anwar insists that he can
feel it.
I
am willing to believe that Anwar did feel something close. I believe the
creative efforts of staging and acting unlocked the empathy which he had
silenced at the time. I say that because of other results of creative
expression I have seen, so it makes sense to me, but also because of seeing the
weight upon Anwar grow.
It
is a hard thing. He is responsible for so much death, and he has stature and
respect for that. He is the beneficiary of a cruel and corrupt culture because
of his participation in it. He is also a human, and it hurts him, turning off
caring about the suffering of others because they "deserve" it is an
important step on the road to genocide.
It's
kind of like you are watching two movies. There are the scenes that the
executioners stage, where it is film making, and there are costumes and effects
and a script, but what we are really watching is the documentary about the
people creating the other movie.
The
other movie ends with a musical number with a waterfall and dancing girls and
"Born Free" playing over the scene. In it, Anwar is thanked by two of
his victims for sending them to Heaven and given a medal. It is telling that
the ending he chose has to be one where it is okay that they were dead. Society
has said that it was a necessary thing to get rid of the communists so they
could have their freedom, but now he needs the victims to be okay too. That
vision is not true enough, which leaves him on the roof struggling to get
something out of him that won't leave.
It
is horrible, but it needs to be seen and known. It needs to be talked about and
felt for all the people who have shut it up inside. It needs to not happen
again.
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