JOUR 61: Magazine Project - Movie Review

Info Box:

Standard Operating Procedure

Grade: B-

Director: Errol Morris

Cast: Lyndie England

Sabrina Harman

General Janis Karpinski

Running time: 1 hour, 58 minutes

Released: Out Now

Main Text:

In 2004, pictures depicting abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners held in Abu Ghraib prison, caused widespread embarrassment for the United States’ political and military leaders and brought condemnation upon those featured in the images
Standard Operating Procedure attempts to uncover the stories beyond the frames of the photographs. The film is the latest work by renowned documentary film maker Errol Morris, who has previously tackled topics such as a wrongly a convicted murderer – The Thin Blue Line – and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara – Fog of War.
The photographs provide a rich body of material for which to base this film around. Many of these images are shocking to observe. They depict such events as prisoners being forced to simulate sexual acts and soldiers joyfully posing with dead prisoners – killed as the result of torture.
The photos themselves paint a damming portrait of those involved. However, Morris encourages the audience to see the dangers of using photographs as a primary source of evidence. He features extensive interviews with some of the main protagonists in the scandal. These interviews depict those featured as naïve and in way over their heads, rather than cruel and malicious.
One of those interviewed, Lynndie England, who appeared in many of the publicized images and thus received much of the condemnation for the affair, is painted in a different light here. She reveals how she was coerced into taking and posing in photos by Specialist Charles Graner, who at that time she was infatuated with.
Sabrina Harman, who in one picture is shown, smiling with thumbs up over a dead Iraqi body, is also featured. Along with being interviewed, letters she wrote home to her wife are also dramatically depicted. These letters are used to back-up her claims that she took the photographs as a means of exposing those involved in the mistreatment.
Along with the photographs and interviews, Morris also features striking reconstructions and a dramatic score, penned by Danny Elfman. For the most part these features help the audience to appreciate what a hugely unsettling place Abu Ghraib was to be in. However, at times this drama is overplayed. The slow motion reconstructing of certain events begins to make you feel like the drama is being forced upon you. Elfman’s score which plays through much of the film also begins to irritate and reinforces the sense of constructed tension. The material featured in this documentary is more than powerful enough to stand alone without these added effects.
The angle of the movie is clear, especially when it is revealed that no one higher in rank than staff sergeant has been convicted for their role in the scandal. He aims to show that those who received all the media attention because of their presence in the photos have been made scapegoats, covering up for the large scale negligence and highly questionable methods of those controlling U.S. policy in Iraq.
Morris does an excellent job as interviewer in getting these people to talk openly and reveal the shocking truths of what went on in Abu Ghraib. That said, one is left with the feeling that those interviewed, England in particular, fail to accept responsibility for their role in the events.
Despite some notable flaws, Standard Operating Procedure is a valuable contribution to exposing the ills in this country’s armed forces. A film I would advise everyone to take a look at.