Errol Morris
The Oscar-winning documentarian discusses Standard Operating Procedure, his new film about the Abu Ghraib photographs.
By Liz Williams
May 30, 2008
Director Errol Morris on the set of Standard Operating Procedure. (allmoviephotos.com)In 2004, the photographs that leaked from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq shocked the world. America watched as its reputation abroad was tarnished by a series of amateur digital photos. Errol Morris has been tracking down the elusive soldiers who were central to the controversy for his new documentary film, Standard Operating Procedure and a related book produced with journalist Philip Gourevitch.
Morris is a longtime documentary filmmaker who is probably best known for his films Gates of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line, and the Oscar-winning Fog of War. Originally from Hewlett, N.Y., Morris studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Princeton, and University of California-Berkeley. Morris sat down with Campus Progress to discuss his new documentary, the failures of media, and what young people think about the war.
Campus Progress: What about the events at Abu Ghraib inspired you to make a documentary like Standard Operating Procedure?
Errol Morris: Well, I think [the soldiers] have been scapegoated. I can’t begin to tell you how many people have asked me questions: How come he doesn’t say he’s sorry, how come he doesn’t express remorse. I don’t think they express remorse because they’re really angry. They feel that they have been blamed for everything, that they have been framed, that they have been blamed for everything inappropriately and that their story is unknown. They’re angry.
CP: What was it about the Abu Ghraib photos that made you think, “This will make a great documentary,” or, “I need to do something about this?”
EM: There’s the realization that these are the most famous war photographs of all time. It’s an amazing thing to say, but it’s true. [These are] photographs that everyone had seen, but very few people really understood or knew anything about. I don’t know why I thought it would make a good movie.
CP: We all saw the photos plastered across our TVs, but what was your initial reaction to them?
EM: What in God’s name is this? They were so bizarre and perverse, but I didn’t have the thoughts that I have now. I wasn’t understanding the pictures correctly. I didn’t really know what was going on. But I just remember everybody had opinions—left, right and center—about all of this with very little evidence to back it up.
CP: Some on the right argued that what happened in Abu Ghraib amounted to a few bad apples, while some on the left saw it as the fault of the higher-ups.
EM: And of course the common denominator is that they’re both evil. There’s someone to blame in the story. One of the biggest and most unappetizing stories of this war is that it is tolerated. I don’t even know what you’re supposed to do about it. It’s not like I have some magic answer, but I do know that it’s not a good thing just to pretend its not happening. Because it is happening, and it does involve young people, most of these people you see in the movie were destroyed by this … and I think the whole country has been damaged by it. We’ve gone mad, the things that supposedly are our deepest values have been put by the way side. I don’t remember this in Vietnam, and that was the war when I was coming of age. Endless posturing, lies, recycling one political opinion after another, very little research, very little journalism … I think that the White House created policies and pressures that made things like Abu Ghraib inevitable.
I do believe that Bush should be impeached; that’s what we have impeachment for.
CP: Your son is 21 years old, pretty close to my own age. What’s his view on the film?
EM: Well, a lot of young people are just plain bored by all of it. I don’t know how better to describe it. Most people go to their news source: “The Colbert Report,” “John Stewart.” Because that is news, actually, it’s people saying something, and taking a position and thinking about stuff. There’s more there, more than I believe is ingenuous … than in any of the standard news shows, which I’ve stopped watching. I think it’s weird to be a young person in this country at the moment. I think young people might like this movie. I don’t know. What do I know?
Liz Williams is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities majoring in journalism. An earlier version of this article was originally published in The Wake, part of the Campus Publications Network.
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I would like to know if this film is playing anywhere in the Boston area and when or will this be a movie I have to Netflix.
— Jennifer - Jun 6, 09:49 AM - #