Werner Herzog discusses the greatness of ‘The Act of Killing’
Throughout his trailblazing career, German auteur Werner Herzog has made several masterpieces like Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo that have defined 20th-century cinema. In addition to his experiments with fiction, Herzog’s filmography is also full of fascinating documentaries that are regularly cited as some of the greatest examples of the genre. That’s exactly why it’s a big deal when a documentary is personally recommended by the Grizzly Man director.
Herzog’s documentary projects have taken him all over the world, from islands with active volcanoes to the icy indifference of Antarctica. However, the acclaimed filmmaker had never encountered anything as powerful as The Act of Killing. Released in 2012 and partially produced by Herzog himself, Joshua Oppenheimer’s monumental work attempts to understand the sociopolitical foundations of the 1965-1966 massacres in Indonesia.
During an interview with Vice, Herzog opened up about his fortunate involvement in the project that came about due to mutual connections in London. Initially, Oppenheimer sought a brief meeting with Herzog to discuss the project, but he didn’t have to explain anything. Instead, the documentarian showed Herzog excerpts from the work-in-progress, and those fleeting vignettes were enough for the German filmmaker to be completely convinced of Oppenheimer’s genius.
Herzog revealed: “I came across The Act of Killing through some sort of organised coincidences. I was in London, and a producer with whom I had worked a lot, Andre Singer, told me that he was an executive producer of the film Act of Killing. And the young man who made the film, Joshua Oppenheimer, desperately wanted to meet me, [even] if it were only for ten minutes… he didn’t say much. He opened his laptop and showed me eight minutes, excerpts from his film. And I looked at it, and I immediately knew I had never seen anything like that. I’d never seen anything as powerful, as frightening and as surreal as what was on the screen. And I immediately said, ‘This is big. This is truly, truly big.'”
While talking about the narrative techniques of The Act of Killing, Herzog added: “Surrealism is something phenomenal in the film. It has never worked in film history, including Buñuel, because it’s a superimposed sort of artistic ideology upon film. And film and surrealism have never really worked well together. But in Joshua’s film, it works. You won’t see a film of that power and of that surrealism in the next one or two or three decades.”
It’s definitely a bold claim, but Herzog’s opinions always have substantial credibility. The Act of Killing didn’t just paint a frightening portrait of the machinations of irrational violence, it also confronted global powers like the US and the UK to acknowledge the seeds of destruction they have sowed around the world – including Indonesia. Undoubtedly among the greatest cinematic masterpieces of the 21st century, Oppenheimer’s magnum opus should be essential viewing for everyone.
Watch the interview below.
