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STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE Review
This film review is probably as political as I’ll ever get, as it is one topic I keep to myself and don’t discuss at all. The reason I was interested in this film was mainly due to the filmmaker, who I consider to be the best filmmaker in his field today: Errol Morris. STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE is an in depth look at the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, with the story of the infamous photographs that surfaced on various news outlets in late 2003 of soldiers humiliating and abusing Muslim prisoners and taking graphic photos depicting their actions. It caused a worldwide outrage and many think it was the start of things to come in a controversial war. This is not a political film by any means, just the story of these soldiers and their time in this prison. Morris by his own words calls this film a “non-fiction horror movie,” and it’s hard to argue with him as the prison itself was a hellish structure that was the target of motor attacks on a daily basis. For soldiers such as Javal Davis, Lynndie England (who was the most prolific soldier in the photographs), Sabrina Harman (who took the majority of the photographs), and Jeremy Sivits, they were specialists who were kept in the dark on the interrogations going on at the prison. For Janis Karpinski, it was taking command of the 800th division, the MP brigade responsible for guarding Abu Ghiraib. For Tim Dugan, a contract interrogator, it was trying to understand why unqualified soldiers were interrogating terrorists. The reason Errol Morris is my favorite documentary filmmaker is because he never preaches his beliefs into his films. He presents the facts as best as he can, and presents more than one side of the story. His ability to get as much information as he can from these soldiers is remarkable, and the answers throughout are stunning. He presents a great question in with all the abuse that was documented, why were the soldiers mainly punished for taking the photographs rather than conducting the abuse itself? The most fascinating interviews came from Tim Dugan, a contract interrogator for the CACI Corporation who was hired to question possible Al-Qaeda suspects. A weathered man who has seen it all, Dugan spoke with great confidence in his abilities as an interrogator and confusion as to why 18 year old soldiers were assigned to interrogate Iraqi generals. He was able to break one general in five minutes where the soldiers couldn’t break them for months. Another was from Brent Pack, a Special Agent for the Criminal Investigations Division who was assigned the task of putting all the photographs taken in the prison to create a timeline to when they were taken and who participated in the photographs. They provide an insight as to the correct process of interrogation and procedure as well as giving you an understanding of how this whole fiasco could’ve been averted. The film does present the soldiers in a sympathetic light, as it is obvious that some of the soldiers indicted didn’t have a lot of involvement in the abuse while others were tempted by peer pressure. For Lynndie England, she speaks not as a soldier but as a confused kid goaded into posing in the photographs as to not be villainized by her fellow soldiers. Harman was very confusing as a subject as while she provides the letters she wrote to her girlfriend (which she narrates herself) saying that she’s not happy with the abuse going on, she’s also not afraid to pose in photographs herself giving a big thumbs up over a dead Iraqi. If she was so adept at documenting this so that others will “see the truth,” wouldn’t she have known better to stay out of the photographs herself? Javal Davis, Jeremy Sivits, and Roman Krol were three soldiers I felt very sorry for, as it shows that they really didn’t do anything wrong yet they were still punished. Sivits in particular was only in one video on one night, and it was enough for him to serve a year in prison, a term longer than Harman, who participated in far more abuse. Charles Graner, who was not interviewed due to still serving time (he received the longest sentence at ten years), is a very disturbing individual and one wonders if he was not stationed at Abu Ghraib would this have happened in the first place? The fact that he is married to one of the soldiers while impregnating another is all you need to know about him. I come from a military family. My father was in the Marines before the Vietnam War, two of my uncles served in Vietnam, and one served in Korea, and all are very pro-military so I was concerned that this film would be an anti-military film, but I’m very glad that Morris presented this film that sympathized the soldiers more than ridiculed them. Janis Karpinski, a Brigadier General who knew nothing about what was going on as a prison, was listed as a scapegoat and her anger shows in her interview. She’s angry, but she’s still proud to have served, as are the other soldiers. The re-enactments are filmed like a horror movie, with intense, chilling slow motion close ups, showing Morris at his best. There was one instance where one of the prisoners was given a gun by an Iraqi guard (who was secretly an insurgant) and shot one of the soldiers. He was shot in the legs with a shotgun and dragged out of the cell. The re-enactment was bone chillingly done, showing the true horror the soldiers face themselves in the prison, particularly being that the prison was attacked every day. What’s most interesting about that moment was the way the media handled the photographs of the blood stained prison cell, indicating that moment as evidence that American soldiers butchered a prisoner. All the subjects proved this wasn’t the case, including Dugan and Davis, who fired back. It is proof of how skewed the media is in their presentation of the facts. This is not a film about the Iraq War, nor is it a skewed film that goes to a political side. This is a harrowing look at an unfortunate scandal that changed the world’s view of America that will take a long time to heal. It is documentary filmmaking at its best, a riveting portrayal that should be looked at and different opinions will be formed, not forced by the filmmaker’s views. That’s what makes Morris so unique and at the top of his game, and STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE is a brilliant documentary that should be looked at. STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE: 10 Out Of 10 Maggots CLICK HERE FOR AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR ERROL MORRIS!
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