Pass National Health Care With Public Option Now
Movie Monday - Standard Operating Procedure
I was going to review Towelhead and Standard Operating Procedure but they are both stand-alone movies. Plus, since my movie viewing occurs at home, once again, I missed the beginning of Towelhead and would like to see it before I put in my “two cents.”
Standard Operating Procedure is SOP in army terms, which IMDb tells me really stands for Standing Operating Procedure. Whatever.
This wasn’t a movie I planned to watch for more than ten to twenty minutes but I wound up glued to the screen for its 116 minute running time.
SOP is Errol Morris’ documentary on the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Except for deep cave dwellers, the known world can recognize this infamous place as the home movie capital of American soldiers’ crimes against humanity. (You must remember the female American soldier’s iconic thumbs-up pose with a naked Iraq prisioner.)
Crimes against humanity was what it was, plain and simple. Of course, since this was an American crime, only the low level grunts were punished with jail time. Oh, a few higher-ups got transfers and slaps on the wrist, but, hey guys, this is America, we all know only uneducated grunts would commit such crimes.
I probably sound bitter and disgusted and I am; but I didn’t get this from Morris’ film because he presents an even-handed look at these atrocities. He allows the soldiers to speak and explain the picture taking and their behavior without prejudice.
He allows General Janis Karpinski, the commandant of the prison, to tell us that whenever she visited everything looked OK. He allows the prison guards to tell us the whenever Karpinski visited beds and clothes were returned to the prisioners. So Karpinski saw her Potemkin village and went away happy.
Morris shows the banality of evil and some commenters on IMDb felt he should have taken a more proactive, anti-torture stance. I don’t. If he had become a Michael Moore type documentary maker, he would have diffused the impact.
These atrocities came to light because of photos and not photos taken and gotten out by prisoners but taken by U.S. soldiers as war trophies. Listening to them justify their actions; listening to them speak without remorse except for the fact that they were caught and punished, is sickening.
But Morris doesn’t tell you to think this; he allows you to decide where you want to stand on the human spectrum: standing with those lacking Be sure to watch it.
Standard Operating Procedure is SOP in army terms, which IMDb tells me really stands for Standing Operating Procedure. Whatever.
This wasn’t a movie I planned to watch for more than ten to twenty minutes but I wound up glued to the screen for its 116 minute running time.
SOP is Errol Morris’ documentary on the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Except for deep cave dwellers, the known world can recognize this infamous place as the home movie capital of American soldiers’ crimes against humanity. (You must remember the female American soldier’s iconic thumbs-up pose with a naked Iraq prisioner.)
Crimes against humanity was what it was, plain and simple. Of course, since this was an American crime, only the low level grunts were punished with jail time. Oh, a few higher-ups got transfers and slaps on the wrist, but, hey guys, this is America, we all know only uneducated grunts would commit such crimes.
I probably sound bitter and disgusted and I am; but I didn’t get this from Morris’ film because he presents an even-handed look at these atrocities. He allows the soldiers to speak and explain the picture taking and their behavior without prejudice.
He allows General Janis Karpinski, the commandant of the prison, to tell us that whenever she visited everything looked OK. He allows the prison guards to tell us the whenever Karpinski visited beds and clothes were returned to the prisioners. So Karpinski saw her Potemkin village and went away happy.
Morris shows the banality of evil and some commenters on IMDb felt he should have taken a more proactive, anti-torture stance. I don’t. If he had become a Michael Moore type documentary maker, he would have diffused the impact.
These atrocities came to light because of photos and not photos taken and gotten out by prisoners but taken by U.S. soldiers as war trophies. Listening to them justify their actions; listening to them speak without remorse except for the fact that they were caught and punished, is sickening.
But Morris doesn’t tell you to think this; he allows you to decide where you want to stand on the human spectrum: standing with those lacking Be sure to watch it.
No comments:
Post a Comment