Documentary explores Abu Ghraib cover-up
Director Errol Morris exposes context of photos
Joe Kempkes
Issue date: 4/24/08 Last update: 4/29/08 at 7:51 PM PST
Section: Arts
Film documentarian, investigative reporter, avant-garde visionary - no one label properly defines the unclassifiable Errol Morris.
His new documentary film, convincingly answers the question: is it possible for a photo to change the world? Morris assembled hundreds of photos taken by U.S. soldiers and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and put them into an understandable context by interviewing those soldiers and investigators on camera.
The result is "Standard Operating Procedure," a film that will not only change the conduct of the U.S. war in Iraq, but also America's self-image.
This unnerving film exposes the context surrounding the photos: who took them, why were they taken and what were the photographers thinking at the time. While the story that we received through the media about Abu Ghraib was shrouded in moral ambiguity, "Standard Operating Procedure" makes it crystal clear exactly what did, in fact, happen there.
The photos are both an expose and a cover-up of what happened there in the fall of 2003. They offer us a glimpse of the horror but, at the same time, they try to convince us that this was all there was to see and that there was no need to look further.
As it turns out, the cover-up at Abu Ghraib involved thousands of Iraqi prisoners and hundreds of U.S. soldiers. "SOP" allows the soldiers involved at Abu Ghraib prison to tell their side of the story.
Lynndie England was a private first class with the 372 Military Police Company who worked as a clerk at Abu Ghraib. Photos of England were published worldwide showing her dominating handcuffed, kneeling Iraqi men with the use of a neck leash.
While such conduct is reprehensible, in this film she explained that this way of relating to prisoners was a standard operational procedure instituted before she arrived. Digital photos with dates corroborate her testimony. England received a three-year prison sentence and a dishonorable discharge for her conduct at Abu Ghraib. The higher-up who instigated these procedures was never prosecuted.
Morris confesses that he would like to see the people who instituted the policies at Abu Ghraib punished. " 'Standard Operating Procedure' is a story about how U.S. soldiers dealt with the horror of Abu Ghraib prison," said Morris. "It's also about how each of us, as individuals, would deal with the nightmare of being trapped in something where there is no way out. It forces us - the viewers - to ask the questions: how would I have reacted? What would I have done?"
His new documentary film, convincingly answers the question: is it possible for a photo to change the world? Morris assembled hundreds of photos taken by U.S. soldiers and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and put them into an understandable context by interviewing those soldiers and investigators on camera.
The result is "Standard Operating Procedure," a film that will not only change the conduct of the U.S. war in Iraq, but also America's self-image.
This unnerving film exposes the context surrounding the photos: who took them, why were they taken and what were the photographers thinking at the time. While the story that we received through the media about Abu Ghraib was shrouded in moral ambiguity, "Standard Operating Procedure" makes it crystal clear exactly what did, in fact, happen there.
The photos are both an expose and a cover-up of what happened there in the fall of 2003. They offer us a glimpse of the horror but, at the same time, they try to convince us that this was all there was to see and that there was no need to look further.
As it turns out, the cover-up at Abu Ghraib involved thousands of Iraqi prisoners and hundreds of U.S. soldiers. "SOP" allows the soldiers involved at Abu Ghraib prison to tell their side of the story.
Lynndie England was a private first class with the 372 Military Police Company who worked as a clerk at Abu Ghraib. Photos of England were published worldwide showing her dominating handcuffed, kneeling Iraqi men with the use of a neck leash.
While such conduct is reprehensible, in this film she explained that this way of relating to prisoners was a standard operational procedure instituted before she arrived. Digital photos with dates corroborate her testimony. England received a three-year prison sentence and a dishonorable discharge for her conduct at Abu Ghraib. The higher-up who instigated these procedures was never prosecuted.
Morris confesses that he would like to see the people who instituted the policies at Abu Ghraib punished. " 'Standard Operating Procedure' is a story about how U.S. soldiers dealt with the horror of Abu Ghraib prison," said Morris. "It's also about how each of us, as individuals, would deal with the nightmare of being trapped in something where there is no way out. It forces us - the viewers - to ask the questions: how would I have reacted? What would I have done?"
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