moviereview - Standard Operating Procedure

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE

	Errol Morris turns his award-winning research onto events at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prision and photos that shocked the world.	score 3+	moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
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Cast
Documentary

Director
Eroll Morris

Screenwriter
Eroll Morris

Country
USA

Rating / Running Time
MA / 116 minutes

Australian Release
July 2008

Official Site

When does a standard operating procedure become a criminal act? It’s the question at the heart of Morris’ hard-hitting documentary that uses incendiary events at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison to illustrate a greater evil in the US administration; one that encouraged extraordinary humiliation and abuse in the processing of POW’s. So when does a SOP become a criminal act? When low-ranking perpetrators cause enough embarrassment to force their Commander in Chief into an apology - or so it seems.

It is well known that a good picture writes its own novel and those taken inside Abu Ghraib told a lengthy and particularly sordid story. At its heart is a policy of exploitation (prisoners and soldiers alike) that Morris, Academy Award winner of The Fog of War, examines in his horror film. The most infamous of the Abu Ghraib photos, notably that of a cloaked prisoner holding electrical wires, was found to be a standard operating procedure. Likewise pictures of naked men chained to a wall with women’s underwear on their faces. However naked men piled into a pyramid shocked everyone and is considered sexual abuse. When, exactly, does one become the other?

Through a series of candid interviews, written testimony and startling images Morris examines the far-reaching implications of the soldier’s behaviour. Was it just simply the actions of a few ‘bad apples’, or had the rot spread from above? And how did that reflect on the manicured image of the American military? Perhaps the most shocking testimony is that of whistle-blower Sabrina Harman who, in letters to her girlfriend, wrote: “I take the pictures (and smile) to prove my story.” For revealing the truth she was given a six-month jail sentence and a forfeiture of all benefits. It seems no one likes to be embarrassed by the staff.

// COLIN FRASER