The Look of Silence (2014) or, The Violence of Indonesia Part II

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+ Best Danish Movie of the Year

The transfixing poster for Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence

The Look of Silence is the second chapter in the immense documentary endeavor of covering the repercussions of the 1965-66 genocide in Indonesia today, which started in The Act of Killing (2012).
While The Act of Killing followed some of the executioners of the mayhem and mass-killing, in which the country's supposed approximately 1 mil. Communists were rooted out by militia death squads with the Indonesian military's support, (as well as, it is indicated, the then Communism-warring US government), as they reenacted their torture and killings for a surrealistic film rendering, which they themselves were in charge of, The Look of Silence puts a reversed focus on the story:

Adi is a middle-aged man, father and husband, who has carried the burden of the genocide with him for all of his life, as his big brother Ramli was killed then as one of the approximately 1 mil. people that were murdered in the 'purge'. Now, Adi seeks answers from some of the responsible executioners who are old men today.

SPOILER The method of introduction which Adi uses to get to sit down with these aging individuals and talk about their dark past that most of them are against shedding fresh light on, is truly ingenious; through the man's profession (I suppose) as a traveling salesman of glasses, he measures their eyesight while bringing some measure of the clarity they all struggle against to the table, through his unflinching questions, his story, and, as the brilliant title captures, his look of silence.
While some of the executioners still feel guiltless and even (outwards) proud of their 'accomplishments', Adi's incriminating, just stare is impossible to escape, once they sit down with him, and it seems to point ahead to some of the coming, unavoidable divine justice that Adi's old mother also looks forward to. The bitter trauma of losing one's child to an act of unusually bestial and cruel violence has an undiminished range as a wound in her soul, and the footage that lays this and her still simmering anger bare is truly remarkable.
The Look of Silence is, like The Act of Killing, made by American documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase (1998)), who resides in Denmark. Unlike on the preceding film, Oppenheimer has sole director's credit on The Look of Silence.

Adi's mother and father add a human aspect and an aspect of love to Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence that raises the film to hallowed ground

The film consists of electric scenes of quiet confrontation with the murderers as well as intimate footage of Adi's own family; his ancient father and old but fresh-minded mother, his wife and his two wonderful kids. We witness the political horror stories that his kids have to listen to as the country's depraved official account of the killings in their school, which have become part of the country's polished, false historical narrative.
While the great, Oscar-nominated The Act of Killing lingered in the basest darkness in the souls of the executioners and bled out in surreality, The Look of Silence balances its gruesome annecdotal material with some lightness and humor from Adi's family, and remains in a totally sober and starkly realistic fix on its story throughout. The film has confrontation scenes that are magnetic and explosive like nothing I've ever seen before, as well as humorous and deeply touching scenes of the love, spirit and compassion that characterize Adi's family. Each confrontation ends differently, and one is especially a standout, as SPOILER the daughter of an executioner asks for forgiveness for her father's sins, while he is sitting next to her. Apart from this scene, the poor memories that characterize just about all the people in the film is staggering: Though many years have passed, and much is probably forgotten naturally, it seems certain also that a huge amount of detrimental denial and lying is present in the Indonesians we get to know in The Look of Silence.
The film is even visually stunning, with a great eye for nature and life in all of its forms, as well as for the sometimes menacing stillness of eternity.
Oppenheimer and Adi are men of incredible courage and spirit, and The Look of Silence deserves to be seen widely and win all the acclaim it can. It is a work of the highest possible integrity and profoundest value. - Don't miss it!

Related posts:

Joshua Oppenheimer: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
The Act of Killing/Jagal (2012) or, The Violence of Indonesia Part I

Joshua Oppenheimer with Adi Rukun at a screening of The Look of Silence

Watch the trailer for the film with English subtitles here, and then do your best to get to see this film in a cinema, please!

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of The Look of Silence and The Act of Killing?
If you are Indonesian or know Indonesians, please tell of your/their experience of the film/s

The Act of Killing/Jagal (2012) or, The Violence of Indonesia Part I

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A colorful, absurdist poster for Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing

This review is based on the 159 minute director's cut version of the documentary, which also exists in a 122 minute theatrical version and an even shorter version, (which is naturally best avoided.)

In 1965-66, Indonesia's new military regime demanded the country's Communists executed. The society's strata of gangsters thereupon carried out 1-2.5 mil. more or less mandated killings, and the group are to this day praised for this genocide. The film documents some of the prolific executioners from then, as they reconstruct their crimes for the camera today.

This hair-raising, deeply unusual war documentary contains despairing and incredible material, e.g. a happenstance real extortion, (the commonality of how it occurs underscores Indonesia's monstrous problems with governance, violence and morality), and morbid reconstructions of torture and murders as well as heart-wrenching testimonials.
By mostly focusing on the executioners, The Act of Killing also becomes a study in the flexibility of the human psyche and its propensity for the most heinous crimes imaginable. One of the film's most troubling qualities is the fact that it accomplishes a portrayal of the killers as humans instead of monsters. Indonesia, on the other hand, as a country, stands out as singularly perverse and despicable to me at least.
The film is a collaboration between Joshua Oppenheimer (The Entire history of the Louisiana Purchase (1998)) and co-directors Christine Cynn (The Globalisation Tapes (2003)) and Anonymous, ('Anonymous' appears 49 times during the credits and cover crew members who cannot be publicly known, because they fear retaliation from the death squads in Indonesia). The Act of Killing takes an at times surrealistic approach to its material and can come across not unlike a bad fever dream, and it is as stirring as it is provocative and oppressive, not a film that goes down easily, but certainly one that burns itself into the memory of those who see it.
Oppenheimer reserved his next documentary, The Look of Silence (2014), to the other side of the story; that of the millions of victims in Indonesia's bloody history.

The film's lead figure, the mass-murderer Anwar Congo here demonstrates how he used to strangle men to death with a metal wire, in Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous' The Act of Killing

Same Congo here in a reconstruction scene towards the film's end, in which he starts to come apart about his past sins, in Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous' The Act of Killing

Watch the trailer with English subtitles here

Cost: Approximately 1 mil. $
Box office: 0.4 mil. $ (US only)
= Uncertainty
[The Act won the BAFTA as Best Documentary in February '14, where Oppenheimer in his speech called for the American government to acknowledge its co-responsibility for the killings. At the Oscars in March '14, The Act was Oscar-nominated as Best Documentary, but did not win. (The happy music documentary 20 Feet From Stardom (2013) did.)]

What do you think of The Act of Killing?
If you are Indonesian, how do you feel about the film and the portrayal of the frightful events in it?

The Raid: Redemption/The Raid/Serbuan Maut (2011) or, The Indonesian Ass-Kicker!

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+ Most Violent Movie of the Year

A towering high-rise looms ominously on this poster for Gareth Evans' The Raid: Redemption

An Indonesian S.W.A.T.-like team drive to an infamous high-rise building that houses crooks more or less from bottom to top, including a drug lab. Their target is the ruthless boss of the building, who is in there somewhere.

 
The Raid: Redemption is written, directed and edited by Gareth Evans (Footsteps (2006)). The original Indonesian title translates to 'the deadly raid'.

This is a very violent film; throats are cut, heads are shot open, people are blasted to bits and smashed repeatedly into walls time and time again. The specialist group initially try to enter the building stealthily, but they are found out early on. Later on, as the group gets heavily decimated, the reason for being there in the first place and the identity of one of the thug leaders bring a bit of doubt and drama into the gnarly situation.
The Raid: Redemption is packed with some pretty inventive and cool action sequences, and its electro score by Mike Shinoda (of hard rock band Linkin Park) and Joseph Trapanese (Happily (2021)) only heightens the kick of adrenaline and male hormones that are already so prevalent in the air around this flick. (The original version has a separate score.) The fight scenes are incredibly choreographed and carried out, and they are the film's main selling point.
The problems with it as I see it are these:
1. The lead played by Iko Uwais (Man of Tai Chi (2013)) is a very flat character. We know about him that he works out at home and that his wife is pregnant. And that's about it. Charisma or humor are not qualities that Evans' lends him. Which is a shame. - One reason that Die Hard (1988) is among the best films in the straight action survival genre ever, is that the protagonist John McClane is such a charismatic, humorous character, - and a tough son of a bitch.
2. The Asian action tradition: While realism is obviously sought after and largely achieved for a good part of the film's beginning, it gets ridiculously unbelievable at some point, as, conveniently, the bad guys run out of guns and ammunition exactly at the same time as the good guys. And the fighting goes on and on without our leads suffering any serious injuries after falling from great heights and taking dozens and dozens of really hard kicks and punches, stabs etc. Also, everyone screams like maniacs when they attack, like in a good old Bruce Lee movie, but The Raid: Redemption just doesn't have any of the humor that adorns those treasured films, and this element also works to ruin the element of realism and dull the senses considerably. (At least mine.)
These are my two main problems with The Raid: Redemption. Many have criticized its lack of character development, but I don't see this as a problem in an action film. I think the plot may have gotten some more meat to it, if some women and/or children had been introduced. Some victims or hostages. The bad guys then get opportunities to look even worse, and the suspense can be heightened. It is a very simple ingredient. But it isn't used here: We stay with the men, fighting each other like crazies.
The Raid: Redemption is certainly an extremely explosive martial arts action film, but as a whole, a bit flat.

 

Related post:

 

Gareth Evans: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 1.1 mil. $
Box office: At least 9.2 mil. $ - could be as high as 16.5 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned at least 8.36 times its cost)

[The Raid: Redemption premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 101 minutes. Shooting took place in Jakarta, Indonesia. The film opened #26 to a 213k $ first weekend in 14 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #11 and in 881 theaters, grossing 4.1 mil. $ (44.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 1.6 mil. $ (17.4 %) and France with 1.2 mil. $ (13 %). However the film's home market Indonesia is missing on both its Box Office Mojo and The-numbers site. Reportedly the film sold 1.8 mil. tickets there; if the average ticket prize (Western) of 2012 is slashed in half for the sake of likely coming closer to the norm in Indonesia at the time, that would run up a 7.3 mil. $ gross. This would mean that the film's real gross is 16.5 mil. $, and that Indonesia was its biggest market by far. It also sold home video copies for at least 10.1 mil. $ in North America alone. Roger Ebert gave it a 1/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. Evans returned with the inevitable sequel, The Raid 2 (2014), but directed a segment of V/H/S/2 (2013) prior to this. Uwais returned first in Man of Tai Chi (2013). The Raid: Redemption is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Raid: Redemption?