X
- 2015
- PG-13
- Drafthouse Films
- 1 h 43 m
- 2015
- PG-13
- Drafthouse Films
- 1 h 43 m
Summary The Look of Silence is Joshua Oppenheimer's powerful companion piece to the Oscar®-nominated The Act of Killing. Through Oppenheimer's footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, ...
Directed By: Joshua Oppenheimer
- 2015
- PG-13
- Drafthouse Films
- 1 h 43 m
- 2015
- PG-13
- Drafthouse Films
- 1 h 43 m
The Look of Silence
8.3
Where to Watch
Summary The Look of Silence is Joshua Oppenheimer's powerful companion piece to the Oscar®-nominated The Act of Killing. Through Oppenheimer's footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, ...
Directed By: Joshua Oppenheimer
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
92
93% Positive
27 Reviews
27 Reviews
7% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
92
93% Positive
27 Reviews
27 Reviews
7% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Harrowing and important documentary.
The Look Of Silence is a powerful gesture of political rebellion, one whose boldest action isn’t damning mass murderers to their faces, but being willing to believe that their stranglehold on country and history could be broken.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 88 User Ratings
8.3
91% Positive
80 Ratings
80 Ratings
5% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
5% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 88 User Ratings
8.3
91% Positive
80 Ratings
80 Ratings
5% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
5% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
I can still love something even if it means giving support to those critics who actually gave movies a great score such as this one. Oh, look, a 0 in here. You know what that means.
Report
A very serious documentary showing a situation (from the 1960's) in Indonesia that was very sad to watch. Pretty scenery, but very sad situation. What a courageous man is the main character. Plus it was cool to see how a healthy senior citizen (over age 90) lives in Indonesia. And, I enjoyed the humor shared between the main character and his parents. I saw this movie on Netflix dvd.
Report
Oppenheimer's first film maintained a passive detachment, allowing the killers to re-enact their own atrocities and metaphorically hang themselves with their own words. The Look of Silence takes a far harder line, probing the killers more deeply and confronting them in an attempt to shake some sense of remorse out of them.
[It] isn't quite documentary filmmaking, but it certainly (and sickeningly) isn't fiction either.
The film moves slowly, yet at exactly the right pace. Long holds on faces let us ponder what’s said and look for visual clues that it may be a lie.
Simply, this is a story that needs to be told, one that proves that sometimes the past shouldn't be relegated to the past. It also makes The Look of Silence an unassailably essential and necessary film.
If The Look of Silence still remains a gripping, vital, consequential documentary, it's in spite of its approach rather than because of it.
A way more traditional documentary (perspective piece) film than its sister film The Act of Killing. Whereas AoK was grand in scope and consequence, The Look of Silence is a narrower, personal take on the same Indonesian genocide. Though this film definitely succeeds in tugging on the heartstrings (more of a yank), it does not quite reach the heights of its predecessor in terms of originality, artistic achievement, or self-reflective impact. Regardless, its a story that should be told and a film worthy of that story.
Report
A companion piece for Oppenheimer's powerful 2012 documentary 'The Act of Killing', 'The Look of Silence' takes a more introspective view of the events where a failed military coup was blamed on "communists" and prompted the military government to foster a general hatred leading to an anti-communist "purge" that brutally claimed the lives of at least half a million people, made all the worse by the negligence and often complicity of Western governments that were utterly consumed with the cold war and fighting communism, a stance which led to atrocities across the globe with Central & South America and other parts of South-East Asia getting more attention than Indonesia.
Oppenheimer gives the narrative a more personal touch by focusing on a single family and the effect of losing their brother in such a senseless and brutal manner, the legacy of the killings you might expect would have the same harrowing effect on hundreds of thousands of families and the country as a whole, hence the title whereby families continue to suffer in silence with many of the perpetrators still in power and apparently untouchable.
With a lack of almost any archival footage or photographic evidence 'The Look of Silence' relies on the testimonies of victims and their families and the disturbingly candid & borderline **** descriptions from the perpetrators for dramatic content, depending on your point of view this might make it a more or less powerful film but given that there is no way to independently confirm what happened between 1965-66 it might make the whole documentary somewhat controversial.
The Bottom Line...
A powerful and personalized account of one of the more overlooked genocides in recent history, 'The Look of Silence' is a stark warning against stoking the fires of political & religious hatred and most effective when accompanying Oppneheimer's 2012 documentary 'The Act of Killing'.
Report
'm not an Indonesian and I found this lacking in substance. It could be easily edited and compressed to like 25 min. War is never nice and domestic ones are the worst. I don't know the country's history enough to judge who was right in this conflict but I've seen enough of this movie to judge it's not even trying to be impartial. And no, stating that communists are godless and immoral is not propaganda. If they were God-fearing, moral people, they weren't communists.
Report
Disappointed. Really guys don't go watch this low grade porn effected spy perversion. Value life's beauty and your moral conscience. It's just another Nielsen's copy loaded with sexual graphics that leaves the movie tasteless. No imagination just slap in your face.
Report
Production Company
Anonymous,
Britdoc Foundation,
Final Cut for Real,
Making Movies,
Participant,
Piraya Film,
Spring Films
Release Date Jul 17, 2015
Duration 1 h 43 m
Rating PG-13
Genres
Tagline Profound, Visionary, Stunning.
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
Venice Film Festival
• 5 Wins & 6 Nominations
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 4 Wins & 5 Nominations
