Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
A terrifying study in mass moral rationalization, "The Look of Silence" finds documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer returning to the subject matter of his Oscar-nominated "The Act of Killing". That film was about the slaughter of some one million communists in Indonesia in the mid 60s. Oppenheimer met with some of the many killers - none of whom were ever punished and who mostly consider themselves heroes - and had them re-enact the murders they committed. It was grisly and at times surreal. Astonishingly, Oppenheimer has followed his 2013 documentary with an even more powerful film that features much more soul- pricking confrontation.
There's nothing surreal about "The Look of Silence"; it's painfully real. In it, Oppenheimer follows a possibly foolish albeit immensely brave and deeply compassionate man named Adi Rukun as he searches out the many people responsible for the particularly gruesome slaughter of his brother, Ramli, who was killed before Adi was even born. The murderers - known as leaders of death squads assigned to different villages - who were sanctioned by the then military upheaval, have lived right alongside the families of the people they killed for more than fifty years now. Many have become rich and powerful. The slaughter is taught as a positive thing in elementary school. One killer even wrote a book - with illustrations - about his exploits.
Adi, an optician by profession, uses eye tests as a ruse to get the killers talking. He quickly finds that none of them express regret. It's a frightening illustration of how cavalier the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing can be about their heinous acts. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer seeks out the two men who actually killed Ramli, and they happily take him to the riverside site of the murder and reenact it, after which they smilingly pose for a snapshot. Oppenheimer also spends a great deal of time with Adi's parents - his blind, senile, 103- year-old father and still-grieving, bitter mother. Their rustic village world and the beautiful tropic setting serve as an odd contrast to the countless tales of violence.
It isn't clear exactly what Adi is hoping to accomplish - he's unearthing the truth, sure, but no one seems to care much. It's as if an entire country has just agreed to forget, or rewrite, its own awful history, even as this compelling documentary yanks our attention to the fact that the architects of a massive tragedy remain free and unrepentant, serving a chilling warning that it could all happen again. This leaves Adi acquiescingly and stoically listening to horror stories from the perpetrators' mouths, even as you sense the seething outrage behind his eyes. Replete with the potential to induce nausea, "The Look of Silence" is so disturbing because so few people in it seem disturbed.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
A terrifying study in mass moral rationalization, "The Look of Silence" finds documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer returning to the subject matter of his Oscar-nominated "The Act of Killing". That film was about the slaughter of some one million communists in Indonesia in the mid 60s. Oppenheimer met with some of the many killers - none of whom were ever punished and who mostly consider themselves heroes - and had them re-enact the murders they committed. It was grisly and at times surreal. Astonishingly, Oppenheimer has followed his 2013 documentary with an even more powerful film that features much more soul- pricking confrontation.
There's nothing surreal about "The Look of Silence"; it's painfully real. In it, Oppenheimer follows a possibly foolish albeit immensely brave and deeply compassionate man named Adi Rukun as he searches out the many people responsible for the particularly gruesome slaughter of his brother, Ramli, who was killed before Adi was even born. The murderers - known as leaders of death squads assigned to different villages - who were sanctioned by the then military upheaval, have lived right alongside the families of the people they killed for more than fifty years now. Many have become rich and powerful. The slaughter is taught as a positive thing in elementary school. One killer even wrote a book - with illustrations - about his exploits.
Adi, an optician by profession, uses eye tests as a ruse to get the killers talking. He quickly finds that none of them express regret. It's a frightening illustration of how cavalier the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing can be about their heinous acts. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer seeks out the two men who actually killed Ramli, and they happily take him to the riverside site of the murder and reenact it, after which they smilingly pose for a snapshot. Oppenheimer also spends a great deal of time with Adi's parents - his blind, senile, 103- year-old father and still-grieving, bitter mother. Their rustic village world and the beautiful tropic setting serve as an odd contrast to the countless tales of violence.
It isn't clear exactly what Adi is hoping to accomplish - he's unearthing the truth, sure, but no one seems to care much. It's as if an entire country has just agreed to forget, or rewrite, its own awful history, even as this compelling documentary yanks our attention to the fact that the architects of a massive tragedy remain free and unrepentant, serving a chilling warning that it could all happen again. This leaves Adi acquiescingly and stoically listening to horror stories from the perpetrators' mouths, even as you sense the seething outrage behind his eyes. Replete with the potential to induce nausea, "The Look of Silence" is so disturbing because so few people in it seem disturbed.