"Standard Operating Procedure"
(Credit: Sony Classics)
- Running time:
- 116 minutes
- Rated:
- R
- Director:
- Errol Morris
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Official Movie Web Site:
- http://www.sonyclassics.com/standardoperatingprocedure/
- Overall User Rating:
-
(0 ratings)
It’s gut-grinding, to be sure. But a misjudged degree of cinematic dazzle obscures the outrages at the core of “Standard Operating Procedure,” director Errol Morris’ first documentary since “The Fog of War,” and the first Iraq documentary to focus on the infamous Abu Ghraib photographs.
Morris asks the right questions here, in no particular order. What do we really see in those 2003 photographs of human pyramids, of dogs lunging at prisoners, of Lynndie England jeering at the dehumanized tableaux all around her? Who remained just outside the frame? Did the right military personnel take the fall? How did the notion of “a few bad apples” low on the command chain gather such unquestioned traction?
The filmmaker interviews civilian contractors, along with Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was ultimately relieved of command and demoted by the administration. She’s angry. But Morris and others believe she, and others like her, took the blame for actions approved on much higher levels.
The familiar faces include England, now looking older, wiser but more rageful. It’s remarkable to hear England rationalize her actions, and remind her critics (persuasively) of the lenient, whatever-it-takes ethos at Abu Ghraib. It’s remarkable, too, to burrow even an inch or two into the psyche of Charles Graner, the father of England’s child, who was also involved with his future wife and fellow Abu Ghraib staffer Megan Ambuhl .
“Standard Operating Procedure” serves up a feast of visual information and steady stream of meticulous, artful dramatic re-creations. But shot after shot, the film starts crowding and eventually overtaking its own subject. When we pause to take in a gorgeous image of dust mites floating in sunlight; when computer graphics designed to give us some logistical or chronological clarity flood the screen with doo-dads; when you’re thrown directly out of Abu Ghraib and into a realm of aesthetic stridency, it’s time for a different approach.
Much has been made of Morris paying some of his interview subjects for their time and perspective. That’s far less troubling than Morris’ pearly, creamy, ever-spinning cinematics. “The Thin Blue Line” remains Morris’ masterwork: There, each detail and, for the time, each unconventional flourish built Morris’ case. In “Standard Operating Procedure” Morris, like a few other Americans I know, is so steamed about Iraq and that war and those photos, he forgot to say when as a filmmaker.
mjphillips@tribune.com
