9 / 10
Official trailer
The Act of Killing is Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2012 Danish-British-Norwegian documentary depicting former Indonesian death squad leaders who participated in the 1965-66 anti-communist purges that killed approximately five hundred thousand to one million people.
The production invited the killers to dramatize their actions in scenes resembling Hollywood genre productions, which they did willingly. Final Cut for Real and Piraya Film produced the film. The production was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary.
I found this film almost unbearable, and I’d still put it in front of anyone who cares about how atrocity happens. Watching old men cheerfully restage murders they committed turned my stomach, and Oppenheimer’s nerve in letting them do it is why it gets a 9. My one reservation is that a few of the staged fantasies run longer than they need to.
The Dramatic Reconstruction Approach
In The Act of Killing, the perpetrators stage dramatic reconstructions themselves, borrowing the Hollywood genre conventions they admire. It’s the most unsettling idea in the film, and conventional documentary ethics would refuse it. I think Oppenheimer was right to go ahead anyway, because the killers’ self-presentation turns into the evidence against them.
The reconstructions show the men’s pride in what they did, and then, slowly, they start to show the weight of it. Watching that shift happen on camera is harder than any archive footage could have been, because the evidence comes out of the killers’ own performances.
For Writers
A documentary can use methods that conventional ethics would refuse when the purpose justifies them. See how Oppenheimer uses dramatic reconstruction to uncover what direct interview couldn’t access.
Anwar Congo Arc
Anwar Congo’s arc develops slowly across the length of The Act of Killing. Oppenheimer mostly watches as Congo’s moral awakening builds through the reconstructions. The result generates documentary character development that conventional perpetrator documentary couldn’t provide. The final sequence, where Congo physically gags at the place where he killed people, wrecked me. I can’t think of another film where a killer’s body seems to confess before his mind does, and that scene is the main reason this gets a 9 from me.
For Writers
Documentary character development across the runtime can tone subject transformation through mounting material. Track how Oppenheimer’s approach produces Congo’s eventual reckoning.
The Cultural Critique
Cultural critique drives The Act of Killing, with focus on how the killers position themselves within Indonesian culture that hasn’t reckoned with the 1965-66 violence. The approach develops through distinct material that converts political content into accumulating detail. This generates documentary substance that conventional historical documentary handles differently.
The perpetrators still hold political and social standing in contemporary Indonesia, and the film lets that standing expose the system that protected them. That’s what made me angriest. These men never had to hide, and I think the film’s refusal to lecture about it makes their comfort far more damning.
For Writers
Documentary cultural critique requires particular material that exposes systemic patterns through individual subjects. See how Oppenheimer shows the system’s protection through the standing the perpetrators still hold.
Craft Note
With The Act of Killing, you can see how documentary relies on methodologies that conventional ethics would refuse when real purpose justifies. The production’s mounting reputation and significant awards confirmed its status. The difficult subject matter and ethically ambitious approach required commitment from audiences, though the film rewards engaged viewing through its building impact.
Is The Act of Killing as good as people say?
I call The Act of Killing required viewing, and it’s the documentary about mass violence I’d hand to anyone who wants to understand how perpetrators live with what they did. It gets a 9 because Oppenheimer found a method almost nobody else would have dared, and it pays off in Congo’s final reckoning. The only thing I’d change is the length of a few staged fantasies.
Frequently Asked Questions
- EE British Academy Film Awards in 2014, Winners Press Conference: Documentary, BAFTA
- The Act of Killing, PBS POV
- The Act of Killing wins BAFTA award, Danish Film Institute
- The Act of Killing (2012), IMDb
