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Standard Operating Procedure
Sony Pictures Classics
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MPAA RATING: R for disturbing images and content involving torture and graphic nudity, and for language
Starring
Christopher Bradley,
Sarah Denning,
Joshua Feinman,
Jeff L. Green,
Merry Grissom,
Cyrus King,
Daniel Novy,
and
Zhubin Rahbar
Is it possible for a photograph to change the world? Photographs taken by soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison changed the war in Iraq and changed America's image of itself. Yet, a central mystery remains. Did the notorious Abu Ghraib photographs constitute evidence of systematic abuse by the American military, or were they documenting the aberrant behavior of a few "bad apples"? We set out to examine the context of these photographs. Why were they taken? What was happening outside the frame? We talked directly to the soldiers who took the photographs and who were in the photographs. Who are these people? What were they thinking? Over two years of investigation, we amassed a million and a half words of interview transcript, thousands of pages of unredacted reports, and hundreds of photographs. The story of Abu Ghraib is still shrouded in moral ambiguity, but it is clear what happened there. The Abu Ghraib photographs serve as both an expose and a coverup. An expose, because the photographs offer us a glimpse of the horror of Abu Ghraib; and a coverup because they convinced journalists and readers they had seen everything, that there was no need to look further. In recent news reports, we have learned about the destruction of the Abu Zubaydah interrogation tapes. A coverup. It has been front page news. But the coverup at Abu Ghraib involved thousands of prisoners and hundreds of soldiers. We are still learning about the extent of it. Many journalists have asked about "the smoking gun" of Abu Ghraib. It is the wrong question. As Philip Gourevitch has commented, Abu Ghraib is the smoking gun. The underlying question that we still have not resolved, four years after the scandal: how could American values become so compromised that Abu Ghraib-and the subsequent coverup-could happen? (Sony Picture Classics)
| GENRE(S): |
Documentary
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| DIRECTED BY: |
Errol Morris
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| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 14, 2008
Theatrical: April 25, 2008
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| RUNNING TIME: |
118 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
With Standard Operating Procedure, the Iraq War finally has its Hearts And Minds.
100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Disturbing, analytical and morose. This is not a "political" film nor yet another screed about the Bush administration or the war in Iraq. It is driven simply, powerfully, by the desire to understand those photographs.
100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Morris challenges us to understand what the pictures show and what they don't show, and to see them in context. And he confronts us with the most important question surrounding them: Do they reveal a crime, an aberration in the system or standard operating procedure?
91
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Standard Operating Procedure says that human nature abhors moral vacuums - but sometimes humans get sucked into them.
91
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Morris, using a welter of photographs (many of which we haven't seen), constructs a day-to-day sense of how Abu Ghraib descended into a medieval hell.
91
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
At this late date there is little that is factually revelatory about his film, but as a human document of what people are capable of in wartime, it's indispensable.
88
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
It's distinctly Morrisean, as it were, and seeing his style applied to subject matter with which one is already somewhat familiar makes one... well, question the style a bit.
88
TV Guide
Ken Fox
No matter how slick and questionably appropriate Morris's style may be, the content is compelling.
88
USA Today
Claudia Puig
It may be the most disturbing film you'll see in a long time.
88
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
In Standard Operating Procedure, Errol Morris does something inconceivable and, at first glance, ill-advised. He gives the US soldiers of Abu Ghraib back their humanity.
80
Film Threat
Don R. Lewis
Not only does Standard Operating Procedure look closely at visual evidence and it's true meaning, it also strives to question the validity of any given photo and, digging deeper still, the meta meaning of a photographic image.
80
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Morris argues that the photos also functioned as a cover-up: prosecution of the case centered on them, leaving free and clear many of those higher up the chain of command.
80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Focus is really the heart of Morris' unsettling film, which strikes a remarkable balance between art and disturbance, between beauty and pain.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
The ethical fallout, the lingering fog of the so-called war on terror, is not that people don't know what's wrong or who's guilty - it's precisely that they do, and count it as the cost of doing business.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Reveals one mystery, only to reveal another that it can't quite penetrate.
75
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Just because others bear blame for what went on doesn't mean they bore none, and while the deal they got was raw, they never lacked the ability to say no.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
In presenting their testimony to the jury of public opinion, Morris would seem to be building a case for absolving some of them of mistreatment charges and implicitly asking for an investigation of those who were not charged.
75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
It also leaves you pondering what you would have done if you had been one of the soldiers stationed there, fighting in an increasingly loony and surreal war. There but for the grace of God, and all that.
70
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
A big, provocative and -- it goes without saying -- disturbing work, though what makes it most provocative is that its greatest ambitions are for its own visual style.
70
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
While this does not strike me as the most urgent element of Standard Operating Procedure, Morris makes a persuasive case that many of the Abu Ghraib photos don't show us what we think they do, and that some of the episodes depicted were staged specifically to be photographed (and might not otherwise have occurred).
70
Slate
Dana Stevens
While Morris isn't interested in exonerating anyone, he clearly sympathizes to some degree with the MPs and deplores the military's fall-guy strategy, which punished these seven soldiers as exemplary "bad apples" while leaving all higher-ranking officers untouched.
67
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
These people manage to convince us that the events at Abu Ghraib were standard operating procedure and not aberrant activities. Therein lies the horror of the movie – and also its banality.
63
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
It's gut-grinding, to be sure. But a misjudged degree of cinematic dazzle obscures the outrages at the core of Standard Operating Procedure.
60
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
Morris mixes piercing sit-downs with disturbing evidence. Though soldiers, including the notorious Lynndie England, express remorse, it's haunting to hear how several prisoners were "nice guys" or known to be innocent, yet no connection is made between those remarks and the images of torture.
60
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
I’m not sure Morris clinches his case, but I’m not sure he wants to: His aim is to throw a monkey wrench into the cogs of our perception.
50
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Too narrowly focused.
50
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Adds relatively little insight to the public understanding of wayward military behavior more incisively analyzed in "Taxi to the Dark Side."
50
New York Post
Kyle Smith
By the end, we wind up pretty much where we were four years ago when the pictures first appeared in the papers: Inexperienced troops did disgusting things, but it's a mystery who else knew.
50
Time
Richard Schickel
Morris's manner of relating this story is very often quite inappropriate to its substance. It is a sordid and appalling tale and what it demands is almost an anti-style -- rough, crude, grim, technically poor imagery unrelieved by sleek, slick fancy work. If you are going to rub our noses in this ugliness, you must not let up until, perhaps, we have learned our lesson.
40
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Since "The Thin Blue Line's" remarkable intervention, Morris's work has grown more public and more problematic--lofty yet snide, a form of know-it-all epistemological inquiry.
40
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
If the movie is meant to uncover any "big scandals," it's a disappointment. The investigator, in one surprising sequence, goes through a number of alleged "torture" photos and acknowledges that the vast majority of them represent "standard operating procedure." That is supposed to be the film's kicker: not what was illegal but how much was legal.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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