STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
US, 2008, 118 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Errol Morris.
It didn’t happen while the Vietnam War was going on: big name directors making feature films or documentaries about the war and its consequences. But, it is happening on a significant scale with American films, many with mainstream stars, with films not just about the invasion and occupation of Iraq or the bombing of Afghanistan, but critical of these events and of American behaviour at political and military level (Redacted, Rendition, Lions for Lambs, In the Valley of Elah, Battle for Haditha (from the UK)).
Now Oscar-winning documentarist, Errol Morris, brings a detailed consideration of what happened in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, especially after the publication of the notorious, humiliating photos around the world and the trials where US military personnel were found guilty and imprisoned – though, as so often noted, no higher official was held to account.
Morris is able to show not only the photos on the big screen but has drawn together a cast to re-enact aspects of the scenes, not in a melodramatic way but with staging, light and shadow, in a style that takes its cue from the photos with the audience feeling that they have seen the actual events. Occasionally, this is heightened with the extreme close-ups of the toothy maws of the snapping guard dogs.
The basic situation of Abu Ghraib is introduced, especially through a 2003 visit of Donald Rumsfeld and the concern of American authorities to capture and imprison Saddam Hussein. (In one of the interviews, it is pointed out that the military found Saddam not through any information gained from torture.)
The bulk of the film, however, consists of interviews (intercut with the photos and re-enactments) conducted by Morris over several years with key personnel responsible for the prison, with participants in the action photographed, especially the now well-known Lyndde England, with Sabrina, one of the key photographers with quotations from her letters of the time, with an American interrogator and with an expert on photography who prepared the data for the prosecution.
One of the guards remarks that the situation must have been grave if it led to the US President apologising to the world.
So, the film is a questioning and an indictment of American policy (and lack of it), unpreparedness to deal with the post-invasion situation, especially in terms of personnel training – and the critique of a tradition that has accepted torture. It is hoped that we are becoming more sensitive to these brutal and humiliating realities.
1.The impact of the invasion of Iraq? On world opinion? The US and public opinion? In the US, in the world?
2.The film’s being made in the immediate aftermath of the invasion and occupation? The rapidity for making these films? This documentary?
3.The significance of the photos of Abu Ghraib, on the news, television, throughout the world, the critique of the US, the investigation into what happened, the trials and the sentences?
4.Errol Morris and his work, his status as a documentarist, careful research, interviews, the importance of the editing?
5.Audience response to the photos from Abu Ghraib, as filmed and seen on the big screen, the re-enactments? The significance and impact of the interviews?
6.The Iraqi situation, the invasion, seeing Donald Rumsfeld going to visit, the quest at the time for Saddam Hussein, its being an overriding factor after the capture and death of his sons? Having a prison for him? Abu Ghraib, the vastness, the regime, the guards, their lack of training? The officers responsible?
7.The prisoners in Abu Ghraib, the reasons for their arrest, terrorists, simple criminals, drunkard beggars …? The treatment, their behaviour, the humiliation, their being naked, the poses, the human pyramids, the hanging of people, the sexual activity?
8.The cross-section of guards, their motivation, exercise of power, humiliation, sexual preoccupation, the poses, the taking of the photos? The psychological background of these guards?
9.The personalities of the guards, as described by the others, as seen by the photos, the commanders?
10.The range of interviews, especially Linddie England, her role, the photographers? The interviewees and their talking, explaining their lives, age? Linddie England, twenty, in love, pregnant? Her being caught, her reassessment of her life? Her child?
11.Davis, the black guard, his comments, perspectives?
12.The main perpetrator, his long sentence, unable to be interviewed? His wife, her presence, her observations, the photos, her being cut out of some of the photos?
13.The officer in charge, her orders, her objections, her being dismissed, the long delay in the letter of dismissal? Her comments and charges against the superior authorities?
14.The interrogator, his explaining the nature of interrogation, his change of attitude – especially about the possibility of success in Iraq?
15.The investigator, his skill in analysing the photos, the time lines, the technology? His attitude towards what was standard operating procedure and what was crime? The device of showing the stamp on the photos?
16.The cumulative effect of looking at the photos, the re-enactments, the way that they were edited, the interviews? And Danny Elfman’s atmospheric score?
17.Abu Ghraib getting world attention, the apology from President Bush? The effect on contemporary thinking about imprisonment, Guantanamo Bay, the nature of interrogation, Geneva Conventions, the role of torture, human rights? The importance of society and its moral sense, its attitude towards cruelty and pain, its greater understanding of standard operating procedures?
