Review of Standard Operating Procedure (2013) by Daniel K — 20 Oct 2008

It's not a film I plan on seeing again anytime soon. However, it is a very effective film. It's certainly not an easy film to watch, but it is nothing if not thought provoking. It's of particular interest to me since I currently work in a detention facility in Iraq.

Needless to say, my detention facility is nothing like Abu Ghraib. It is far smaller and run, on every level, quite differently. I can understand how this happened though. It really seems quite natural.

If the SOP was to place people in stress positions while naked and assault their senses, it is not a huge leap to pile them up on the floor, yell at them, and strike them. As good as this picture is, it doesn't even come close to telling the story I'm most interested in.

The picture I'd like to see would involve a more comprehensive examination of the story and not just interviews of the people in the pictures. It is a very small and focused picture about very specific people and the power of the photography.

I wish Morris would have gone more in-depth into the story and expanded the canvas a great deal. The film I'd like to see would involve not just interviews of eyewitnesses, but commentary by others in the chain of command and from experts outside of the immediate actions.

This would be a much more difficult film to make as effective, but would certainly tell a more complete picture. It's as if Morris has simply decided to open the discussion and leave it up to the viewer to take it to the next level.

This works on one level, but is disappointing to me in other ways. This picture was not any more illuminating than an article I read in The New Yorker about the incidents in question. It is certainly not about the relatively minor actions undertaken by this small group of individuals.

It is really about the use of torture as a means of interrogation and punishment. Fascinating, but inadequate, for me at least, work.