{"id":9785,"date":"2015-06-22T12:22:28","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T16:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=9785"},"modified":"2015-06-22T12:22:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T16:22:28","slug":"the-truth-without-reconciliation-committee-i-review-the-look-of-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/06\/the-truth-without-reconciliation-committee-i-review-the-look-of-silence.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Truth Without Reconciliation Committee”: I review “The Look of Silence”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

for AmCon:<\/p>\n

For the extraordinary 2012 documentary \u201cThe Act of Killing<\/a>\u201c, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer encouraged participants in the Indonesian death-squad killings of 1965 to reenact their murders of suspected or fabricated Communists. The killers, who have reaped material and political success from their violence, were for the most part happy to oblige. Their reenactments became increasingly baroque and Hollywoodized; they expressed the self-image which made them feel powerful and free, and allowed them to evade remorse. This was not a film about the victims but about the victimizers: the phantasmagoria of their rationalizations.<\/p>\n

Now Oppenheimer has released \u201cThe Look of Silence\u201d, a companion piece that follows Adi, a 40-something father of two whose brother was killed in \u201965, as he confronts his brother\u2019s killers. The movie\u2019s title refers most obviously to the fixed stare with which Adi watches footage of the killers chortlingly reenacting and expounding on the proper methods for throat-slitting and dismemberment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Look of Silence\u201d was made before \u201cThe Act of Killing\u201d had been released, so nobody Adi interviews starts out with any suspicions. But Adi explains that he is the brother of someone they killed. He will not let his interviewees get away with easy answers: \u201cI don\u2019t mean to offend you\u2014but I think you\u2019re avoiding your moral responsibility,\u201d he tells one man, striking his chest at the final words as if reciting the Confiteor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

for AmCon: For the extraordinary 2012 documentary \u201cThe Act of Killing\u201c, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer encouraged participants in the Indonesian death-squad killings of 1965 to reenact their murders of suspected or fabricated Communists. The killers, who have reaped material and political success from their violence, were for the most part happy to oblige. Their reenactments became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[171,173,508,47,79,51],"class_list":["post-9785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-abuse-of-power-comes-as-no-surprise","tag-i-could-pick-a-better-century-out-of-a-hat","tag-joshua-oppenheimer","tag-killing-in-the-name-of","tag-moral-memories-of-the-past","tag-so-far-from-god-so-close-to-the-united-states"],"yoast_head":"\n"The Truth Without Reconciliation Committee": I review "The Look of Silence"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"for AmCon: For the extraordinary 2012 documentary \u201cThe Act of Killing\u201c, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer encouraged participants in the Indonesian death-squad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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