Standard Operating Procedure is the latest documentary from the brilliant Errol Morris, who won an Oscar for The Fog Of War and who set an innocent man free with The Thin Blue Line. This time his subject is the abuses at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.
In 2003, several military police officers in the US Army spent months humiliating Iraqis under their supervision. Bizarrely, using multiple cameras, they blithely documented these degradations. And when the photos were made public they caused an international outcry.
As a documentary maker, Morris is a consummate stylist, and he stages artful recreations of the abuses that really emphasise how it might feel to be waterboarded or attacked by a dog. And his interview technique is simple – he just lets the accused, and those who worked with them, speak for themselves. What emerges is a forensic account of the abuses.
It’s disturbing that many of the worst acts weren’t concluded to be criminal but simply 'Standard Operating Procedure". Even more disturbing is the notion that the US military let low-level soldiers take the heat for this to distract from the real issue – the systematic torture and murder of detainees, none of which was photographed.
Morris’s film is compelling but I was also disturbed by its overly sympathetic approach to the American perpetrators. I did appreciate that he let them explain the atmosphere of Abu Ghraib, which was daily being shelled, and the 'just following orders" mindset. But Morris might have questioned his subjects more closely about how they regret what they did and whether they’re sorry. Most of his interviewees seem to most regret taking incriminating photos and feel sorriest for themselves for getting caught.
As yet another distressing look at where the war on terror is taking us, Standard Operating Procedure rates three and a half stars.
