The Act of Killing

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

So who has seen this movie?

It's a very unique documentary on the subject of the bloody anti-communist purges of 1965 in Indonesia, right after the fall of President Sukharno and the immediate rise of dictator Suharto. Suharto and his cronies hired a bunch of gangsters to create a death squad that would ultimately slaughter over a million people for the crimes of communist sympathy. It also just so happened that a sizable chunk of the victims were Han Chinese, so they also could put genocide on their resumes.

The filmmaker, Jason Oppenheimer, tracks down some of the most infamous killers, including one of the worst mass murderers Anwar Congo, and gives them film crews so they can direct a film version of their recollections of the purges, in the film genre of their choosing.

The result is not only surreal, but also horrifying. Although it's filtered through the personal recollections of the killers, they don't hold back on the violence. They inadvertently reveal the gruesome horror of the mass slaughter they perpetrated, sometimes gleefully.

It's one of those movies you'll probably never want to watch again, but you should watch it at least once. Just know that your faith in humanity might go down a peg or two....

[Comrade V]

Watched an interview on it, haven't gotten a chance to actually check it out yet.

I think I might be doing tha after work now. Discussion inbound soon.

[Comrade V]

That was a rough fucking movie.

What got to me was when they were casually joking about chopping that one dude's legs off and throwing him in the river.