MOVIE: Standard Operating Procedure

Movie Reviewed by The Evil Dr Sanchez, Esq.

Editor's Rating:  

(8 /10)

Starring: Christopher Bradley, Sarah Denning

advertisement

Critically-acclaimed documentary maker Errol Morris continues to question the American military complex in Standard Operating Procedure, his follow up to 2004’s Best Feature Documentary Oscar-winner The Fog of War. This time Morris turns his attention to the now infamous pictures taken by American soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

You know the pics, prisoners stacked in a naked triangle with smiling US soldiers giving the thumbs up, a man stood on a chair with a bag on his head seemingly wired up in a shower recess, a pummeled corpse again with a soldier giving the thumbs up. Not the kind for a polite slide night at Mum’s.

After being leaked, mainly through the internet and finally to the press, the Abu Grahib pictures sent shockwaves throughout the world due to their humiliating and abusive nature. Human rights, what human rights? These here are prisoners my son and this is WAR. And of course (allegedly) all is fair in war (and something else).

Morris attempts to get the stories behind the pictures by interviewing the perpetrators as well as putting the most obvious question ‘Why the hell would anyone do such a thing?’ And if you thought the horror of the pictures was bad enough, wait until you get an insight into some of the justifications behind them. At times the answers to Morris’s questions are chillingly laughable, at others the stock standard ‘I was just carrying out orders’ (now where have we heard that before?). One officer purports to have taken pictures to ‘let people know what was going on’ and yet she was the one thumbs aloft next to the abovementioned corpse. Yes, I believe you, millions wouldn’t …

Allegedly, much of what you and I would see in these pictures as torture and abuse are actually, as the title says, ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ (SOP). In the military these are ways and means of ‘breaking down’ prisoners to gather information. You will be shocked to discover what actually qualifies as SOP as opposed to blatant abuse.

It is true that most of us who have never encountered military life or ever been close to conflict have no idea how the pressure of such a situation would blur the lines between right and wrong and Morris does not conveniently gloss over that. What he does offer is a look at the major players in this hideous drama and a very scary insight into what, in war, is deemed acceptable behavior. It will give you the creeps, but then again war should do that shouldn’t it?