LitRadar - May 3, 2026 - The Act of Killing

This article examines the unsettling intersection of history, memory, and cinematic representation through The Act of Killing, a documentary by Joshua Oppenheimer. It begins by recalling a 1966 column by James Reston, who framed Indonesia’s violent anti-Communist purge—led by Suharto following the fall of Sukarno—as a strategic and even positive development for U.S. interests. This purge, which killed at least half a million people, was later acknowledged by the C.I.A. as one of the worst mass murders of the twentieth century, revealing the extent of Western complicity and Cold War politics in shaping global narratives of violence.

The documentary shifts focus from victims to perpetrators, particularly Anwar Congo, who openly recounts and reenacts his role in the killings. Oppenheimer’s radical approach—inviting perpetrators to stage their own dramatized versions of the violence—exposes a chilling absence of remorse and a deep entanglement of memory, performance, and self-deception. These reenactments blur the line between reality and fiction, revealing how individuals and societies construct narratives that justify or obscure atrocities. In Indonesia, where such events are largely absent from official history, figures like Congo are still celebrated, underscoring a collective denial embedded in national memory.

 

The article situates this film within a broader tradition of documentary experimentation, referencing works like Shoah by Claude Lanzmann and The Fog of War by Errol Morris. Like these films, The Act of Killing interrogates how perpetrators rationalize violence, raising unsettling ethical questions about guilt, responsibility, and the idea that “war crimes are defined by the winners.” This notion echoes reflections by Robert McNamara on the moral ambiguity of wartime actions, suggesting that power often determines the boundaries of justice.

 

Ultimately, the documentary becomes a profound exploration of memory and its distortions. By forcing perpetrators to confront their own past through performance, Oppenheimer reveals cracks in their self-narratives. The film’s most powerful moments emerge when these constructed identities falter, and suppressed guilt begins to surface. The article concludes by emphasizing how The Act of Killing not only revisits a largely ignored historical atrocity but also challenges viewers to reflect on how histories are told, who gets to tell them, and how nations live with the stories they choose to remember—or forget.

 

Reference: 

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-weird-genius-of-the-act-of-killing