Jack Shaevitz
4/26/14
Sautin
The Act of Killing
The Act of Killing, a documentary directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, examines the genocide in Indonesia from 1965-1966. Oppenheimer contacted various perpetrators of the massacres and asked them to recreate their crimes in any form they desired. Some of the murders at first seemed very excited about Oppenheimer’s project, claiming to know the “truth” of what happened and that this history should be revealed, so that young people and communists do not forget the past. The “truth” for them is their sustained heroism and murder against the so-called communists, their families and even descendants. But their reaction slowly changes when some of them start to become aware that the people they killed were ordinary human beings, not merely objects to be killed and tortured. In the film, the re-enactment of the events of 1965, with plenty of makeup to show the brutality, has made them aware that their victims have undergone massive trauma and suffering. The role reversals seem to have a huge impact on Anwar Congo, who plays his own victims. This film has made fiction become “reality” for the perpetrators, whereas before, the reality was some kind of fiction for them: the mass-murder, as Anwar admitted, was some kind of manifestation of his imagination influenced by gangster movies. The protective screen they put up that prevented a deeper moral crisis was the cinematic screen: as in their real killings and torture, the men experienced their role play as a re-enactment of cinematic models. Thus they experienced fiction as reality. During their massacres, the men imitated Hollywood gangsters, cowboys and even a musical dancer. This was an attempt to mask what had really happened and pretend it...
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...ore the massacres. Like Congo, he has a sense of disbelief over what he has become. Yet at the same time, he enjoys and relishes the power that comes with his control. He aspires to be a politician because of the money that he can make. He regularly extorts chinese businessmen to maintain his sense of power. This need for control is a way for him to clamp down on his feelings of guilt and shame over what he did.
At the end of this movie, the viewer is left to contemplate what this all means. Do the perpetrators feel any real remorse? Do they understand what they did and why it is wrong? The idea that they feel no contrition is chilling and frightening. One of the things that we hold onto is the sense of good in humanity. That we can 'fight' the evil in the world. The idea that they embrace evil and have no compunction is counter to the human condition and optimism.
The documentary titled Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat is a documentary shedding some light on the growing trend of America and its expanding waistlines. The documentary is geared to unmask the epidemic of obesity in our country. The film sheds some light to our society is how our society is fixated with living and unhealthy lifestyle. The film goes on to inform you on how bad the situation really is, where two-thirds of the American population qualifies as obese or overweight. The documentary tried to uncover the root and causes of how this epidemic came to be and how it can be reversed.
Is it justifiable to inflict the death penalty on individuals who have committed murder? As majority would have it, yes. There are many arguments in favor of capital punishment. Some of these include taking a murderer out of this world once and for all, and saving money that would be spent on them if they were given a life sentence, as well as the majority rule of citizens of the United States wishing it to stay. In Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, Dick and Perry were assigned the death penalty for the cruel murders of four members of the Clutter family in a small town in Kansas. Not only did this pair of men deserve what they got, but it is also better for the state that they were executed.
In "The Most Dangerous Game" and "Bargain" murder happens. Certainly, murder is one of the most vile, inhuman crimes a person can commit. Many people commit it willfully and wantonly, but few get away with it without being suspected. General Zaroff got away with murder quite frequently, and Mr. Baumer also did. They were both good at it. Zaroff and Mr. Baumer were the most evil people in "The Most Dangerous Game" and "Bargain" because they were both very sneaky and smart about murdering, they both stacked the deck against their victims, and they were both murderers.
While years pass by and the times change, history, nevertheless unimportant, is continually being made. The more important events are recovered and documented, and artifacts from the time span are conserved. These kinds of incidents, deserving of occupying space in textbooks and in valuable time throughout history courses around the globe, are reviewed time and time again, with the purpose that these kinds of occurrences should never be ignored as well as decades to come, may have a window into the past. However, it appears as though a few incidents are outlined and glorified, forcing some others under the rug, to be long forgotten, while the periods of time change. The Rape of Nanking is certainly one such type of situation. Even though discussed in books and courses, the Rape of Nanking is briefly reviewed as well as ignored, making those curious, with an imperfect understanding on the forgotten Holocaust of World War I. Iris Chang’s raid into China in December of 1937, reveals a ruthless massacre which years afterwards has developed high essential questions not just concerning imperial Japanese militarism but yet the psychology of killers, torturers, and rapists.
Actus Reus of Murder When a man of sound memory over the age of discretion unlawfully kills
As a viewer, the documentary’s intention to inform is more completely fulfilled by research conducted beyond the scope of the camera lens. Had I never written this paper, for instance, the reason for all the violence embedded within the subject matter would remain as enigmatic as the documentary itself.
SAINATI, TATIANA E. "Toward A Comparative Approach To The Crime Of Genocide." Duke Law Journal 62.1 (2012): 161-202. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Nov. 2013
However, upon the new changes in cinema—the idea of ideology shifted as well. Modernist Cinema subverted that typical dominant ideology. There is always a larger question poses about the film as a whole; why was this film made? Badlands situates the spectator in the position to decide whether or not murder is evil based on the visuals he or she views. The author’s hopes is that by creating unidentifiable characters and a nonchalant world that the spectator will realize that the idea of murder isn’t in fact being promoted merely the opposite—it’s being subverted. The subject matter of this film is one that is certainly unpleasurable in terms of entertainment but actually a dissatisfaction intending to comment on society as a whole. This intentional provocation involves “the attack on ‘entertainment’ cinema [as] part of a broader attack on the whole of ‘consumer society’” (Wollen, 424). Cinema serves as a distraction from society, but also operates to make a point to its intended audience. The point being the obvious, murder should never be morally acceptable. Its consequences typically should evoke a reaction that testifies against nature of the
The question of moral validity has plagued societies for millennia. Unsurprisingly, this question afflicted Indonesia between 1965 and 1966. In the early days of October 1965, a group of conspirators took and killed six generals. The disagreement of whom caused this coup caused the killing of more than 80,000 (1,000,000 in some areas) people. This caused a social change from aristocrats to an Indonesian business class. For other peoples around the world, the view of this genocide was a victory over communism. While these killings were clearly morally deplorable, the result was an improved and restructured government; a victory for capitalism at the height of the Cold War.
Director Mark Herman presents a narrative film that attests to the brutal, thought-provoking Nazi regime, in war-torn Europe. It is obvious that with Herman’s relatively clean representation of this era, he felt it was most important to resonate with the audience in a profound and philosophical manner rather than in a ruthlessness infuriating way. Despite scenes that are more graphic than others, the films objective was not to recap on the awful brutality that took place in camps such as the one in the movie. The audience’s focus was meant to be on the experience and life of a fun-loving German boy named Bruno. Surrounding this eight-year-old boy was conspicuous Nazi influences. Bruno is just an example of a young child among many others oblivious of buildings draped in flags, and Jewis...
The story of “Killings” by Andre Dubus looked into the themes of crime, revenge and morality. The crime committed in the story depicted the father’s love for his son and the desire to avenge his son’s death. However, his own crime led to his own destruction as he was faced with questions of morality. The character found himself in a difficult position after taking his revenge. He failed to anticipate the guilt associated with the crime he committed. Feelings of anger and righteousness are illustrated by the character throughout the story.
Violence marks much of human history. Within the sociopolitical sphere, violence has continually served as a tool used by various actors to influence and/or to control territory, people, institutions and other resources of society. The twentieth century witnessed an evolution of political violence in form and in scope. Continuing into the twenty-first, advances in technology and social organization dramatically increase the potential destructiveness of violent tools. Western colonialism left a world filled with many heterogeneous nation-states. In virtually all these countries nationalist ideologies have combined with ethnic, religious, and/or class conflicts resulting in secessionist movements or other kinds of demands. Such conflicts present opportunities for various actors in struggles for wealth, power, and prestige on both national and local levels. This is particularly evident in Indonesia, a region of the world that has experienced many forms of political violence. The state mass killings of 1965-66 mark the most dramatic of such events within this region. My goal is to understand the killings within a framework of collec...
Offenders given mandatory life in prison on charges of murder, on average only serve 16 years before being released back into society. One in three of these killers carries out a second murder even under the supervision of the probation officer.1 If we allow murderers to spend life in prison we run the chance of them getting out and killing again. Capital punishment can also deter future perpetrators from committing such a heinous crime, and it will end the prisoner’s suffering by giving them a humane death and give closure to the victim’s family. Without a concrete meaning of “life in prison” we need the death penalty to put an end to the most evil of people.
Michael Sanders, a Professor at Harvard University, gave a lecture titled “Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? The Moral Side of Murder” to nearly a thousand student’s in attendance. The lecture touched on two contrasting philosophies of morality. The first philosophy of morality discussed in the lecture is called Consequentialism. This is the view that "the consequences of one 's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.” (Consequentialism) This type of moral thinking became known as utilitarianism and was formulated by Jeremy Bentham who basically argues that the most moral thing to do is to bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people possible.
Murder is considered a serious crime in our country. The loosely defined term of murder implies that a person who kills another human being with intent is known as being the worst kind of violent crime we see in our society. Any unlawful killing requires that a living person be killed and it does not mean that the guilty person feels any hatred or spite in order to plan and execute the act of murder. Moreover, the destructive acts that end peoples lives are classified as homicides which include manslaughter and first and second degree murder. More important, the justice system has put different labels on such crimes, but it also allows room for criminals to get away with murder.