"Standard Operating Procedure"
(Credit: Sony Classics)
- Running time:
- 116 minutes
- Rated:
- R
- Director:
- Errol Morris
- Genre:
- Documentary
- Official Movie Web Site:
- http://www.sonyclassics.com/standardoperatingprocedure/
- Overall User Rating:
-
(1 rating)
Big question: Can director Errol Morris achieve the same impact that he did with his last war-related documentary, the Oscar-winning "The Fog of War"?
Catch it: "Standard Operating Procedure" presents truth as elusive and frequently skewed, particularly in a war zone with a thin line between proper behavior and a crime. If anything, the movie, through unflinching directness and puzzling emotional detachment, reflects the incomprehensible experience of going to war and the ease of twisting the rules as long as there's no proof.
Skip it: If you don't want to see anything disturbing on screen. Much of "Standard Operating Procedure" is very difficult to watch—the images from inside the prison are startling no matter how many times you've seen them and, obviously, much more troubling than anything in "The Ruins" or "Prom Night."
Bottom line: The film doesn't go up the chain of command to ask how this happened or who was giving the orders. But even if the rhythm of the photos and the stories becomes a bit redundant, the horror that it happened at all makes it worth seeing and discussing.
Bonus: Turns out Naughty By Nature's "Hip Hop Hooray" and Metallica's "Enter Sandman" don't work as torture devices, but country music drives prisoners nuts. Um, no comment.
