Anybody who has been following Morris' New York Times blog knows that he has been obsessed with the close reading of photographs -- what they seem to say, what they prove, and what they leave out. With reenactments, animations that line the photos up on a timeline, and testimony by many of the soldiers directly involved in the scandal (Lynndie England, Janis Karpinksi, Sabrina Harman), the film tries to reconstruct the events behind the images: prisoners forced into stress positions, attacked by dogs, sexually humiliated, tortured, and killed.
Contentious journalists also asked pointed questions about his use of dramatic reenactments and a strangely inappropriate score by Danny Elfman. "Consciousness is a reenactment," Morris countered, and reassured us that he was in search of truth. He defended the music -- which inadvertently puts one in the mind of a Tim Burton film -- by pointing out that he pictured Standard Operation Procedure as a "non-fiction horror movie." There can be no doubt that S.O.P. offers a meticulously detailed account of a very dark chapter of American history, but it stands to reason that Ghosts of Abu Ghraib and Taxi To The Dark Side tell more accessible, wide-reaching, and all-out infuriating stories about the same topic.
Directed by: Errol Morris
Produced by: Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Julia Sheehan
Release Date: April 25th, 2008 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for disturbing images and content involving torture and graphic nudity, and for language.
Distributor:
Sony Pictures Classics
