Standard Operating Procedure

Errol Morris’s latest documentary examines the infamous Abu Ghraib photographs -- who took them and why? what they show and what they don’t show? It’s definitely a meta-exercise and not “just the facts, ma’am,” as the jazzy graphics and stagings seem to betray. While it is interesting to see some of the convicted soldiers (Lynddie England et al.) tell their side of the story, and there is point to the Susan Sontag-like concern with the inherent meaning of photography as a medium, this is a pivotal story told askance, and suffers badly in comparison with Taxi to the Dark Side in telling the truth about America’s descent into torture. The film does help you get inside the heads of the “bad apples” who were held accountable, but does not follow the trail to the bad apples in the White House who were truly responsible, as Alex Gibney’s film does so well. So ultimately it says more about Errol Morris’s standing operating procedure (showy but generally effective) than about the S.O.P of military interrogation, and fits more usefully into his own oeuvre than into the essential but suppressed debate over whether the U.S.A. is a torture state. (2008, dvd, n.) *6+* (MC-70.)