Interpretation of the legality of Abu Grahib prison is left to the audience in the documentary ''Standard Operating Procedure.'' (Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics).

By Bob Polunsky
Guest Columnist

“Standard Operating Procedure” is tough to watch but impossible to ignore. It’s both a description of and an explanation for the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Grahib prison in Iraq.

Military personnel re-staged some of the abuses, and filmmaker Errol Morris shows them in framed pictures that call attention to the overall situation.

It’s obvious that it wasn’t the work of “just a few bad apples,” and it’s reminiscent of the torture techniques pictured in movies about our wartime enemies in the past. The important thing to remember is that it takes place on “our side” by people who should know better. If you saw the Tom Cruise movie,
“A Few Good Men,” you’ll get the point. It was about a U.S. officer abusing an enlisted man and trying to keep his involvement a secret.

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris delivers a polished, professional re-creation of the atrocities that is closer to an ordinary movie than his previous documentaries. But that doesn’t excuse the abusive treatment pictured.

There is plenty of frontal nudity, recreation of the “human pyramids” that reportedly were staged at the prison to demean the prisoners and the famous picture of Army enlistee Lynndie England, leash in hand, grinning from ear to ear at the nude prisoner attached to that leash.

 Morris doesn’t skimp on the production values. Everything is up close and personal, especially when the prison officials (by and large, enlisted personnel) say, “everybody knew what was going on”.
Several prominently featured prison guards and officials – especially the stern-faced England – gaze stonily into the camera when discussing the prisoner abuse in detail. An unseen reporter interviews her, and neither she nor the reporter pulls any punches, but they don’t really say much.

Although when England describes the photographed activities re-staged for the camera, the look in her eyes reveals more than her words alone. She also talks about her personal life while serving in the military, describing her disappointments as if they excused abuses leveled at the prisoners.

Documentaries are not generally staged, but they can be excused in this film because the same personnel involved in the prisoner abuse staged it for the camera.  Errol Morris takes full advantage of the staged episodes, framing them like photographs and zeroing into the face of military personnel during interviews in order to document their inner feelings about the situation.

He doesn’t editorialize nor add explanations to their comments. Neither do the interviewees. But their body language is very expressive. 

The only officer punished for the prison scandal was Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the Army reserve officer in charge of military prisons in Iraq. Her punishment consisted of a demotion to the rank of colonel.

Most of the interviews consist of talking heads without raising questions about the legality of the situation. Morris leaves the interpretation of the explanations and comments up to the viewing audience. He then allows his camera to linger on their faces, and that makes a statement about the way the personnel – mostly young and inexperienced men and women – feel about what happened on their watch while the world tuned in.

Studio rating: R for graphic nudity
Bob says: “More horrifying than any fictional narrative could be” ****