Joshua Oppenheimer (dir.), The Act of Killing
| Author | Nicole Rafter |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480613506645 |
| Published date | 01 May 2014 |
| Date | 01 May 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Film review |
506645TCR18210.1177/1362480613506645Theoretical CriminologyFilm review
research-article2014
Theoretical Criminology
2014, Vol. 18(2) 257 –260
Film review
© The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/1362480613506645
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Joshua Oppenheimer (dir.), The Act of Killing, Denmark: Final Cut for Real ApS, 2012;
159 & 115 min. versions, colour
Reviewed by: Nicole Rafter, Northeastern University, USA
The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer’s new film about the Indonesian genocide of
1965–1966, belongs to the genre of genocide films, a little known yet growing group of
morally probing movies about mass extermination. It is also a new kind of film, although
I do not quite know what to call it—an anti-documentary, perhaps, or a Dadaist docu-
mentary. The stars are the killers themselves, 50 years older but still delighted to be
recognized as perpetrators of a genocide, which they reenact with glee. Never punished
for their mass murders, these killers do not have the slightest fear of being punished this
time around, either, for they live in a society in which corruption is the rule, and in which
gangsters like themselves interpenetrate with the military and government. They killed
in the first place for fame, money, and power; and they reenact their most heinous crimes
for the same motives, fully confident that responsibility will never brush them with its
wing. ‘We were allowed to do it’, one killer points out, ‘and never punished.’ This film
shows the results.
If all genocides are by definition incomprehensible, this one is particularly so due to
the impunity and lack of acknowledgment that followed in its wake. At the time it
occurred, Indonesia was home to the world’s largest Communist party, outside of the
Soviet Union and China. An aborted coup attempt in which six generals were killed and
stuffed down a well was quickly followed by a military takeover by General Suharto,
who pinned the attempted coup on Communists. (In fact, the coup attempt seems to have
been led by a small group of...
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