Movie Details
| Title: | The Act of Killing | |
| Director: | Joshua Oppenheimer | |
| Year: | 2012 | |
| Genre: | Documentary | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.12.20 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.12.20 | Internet | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2020 Well... I know one intended purpose of this movie journal is to capture my thoughts about a film every time I watch it. That includes immediate first thoughts so if I watch it again, I can track how my feelings toward it change. But in this case I'm finding it very hard to put my feelings toward this film into words. There's just so much going on, both in the subject matter and the filmmaking itself, that it's hard to organize in my brain. Like, why did that one gangster dress in drag through most of the movie inside the movie? And was the movie they made during the documentary actually finished and shown in Indonesia? It seemed like they went on tv to promote it? And what kind of pick-up line is swearing you have a mole on your... never mind. This is a really... what's even the word? haunting? scary? bizarre? amazing? unbelievable? all of those? Mostly I feel like I am still very sheltered in terms of my own life and worldview to not know or understand how this can go on in other countries. There are so many scenes so laden with strata of emotion. The one that comes to mind was when the main guy's neighbor told the story of his dad while laughing, careful to explain that he wasn't criticizing... and the response he got was that his story was too complicated to make it into the movie? Then he became an unbelievable actor while playing a victim. And why was the fat one such a good actor? No other gangster cried like that. What the fuck is going on!? at least we got to see the main guy suffer the indignity of dry heaving on camera. no one wants to make those sounds, much less have them recorded onto film. Even if it took him 50 years to show a shard of empathy, his body physically betrayed his emotions like Robert Durst in The Jinx. I suppose I will have to see the follow-up, The Look of Silence, but not today. I knew this would be the emotionally roughest point in the fest so hopefully the next one will lighten the mood a tiny bit. Jesus. |
