ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

ERROL MORRIS makes films that change the world. His landmark documentary The Thin Blue Line exposed a miscarriage of justice and ultimately saved an innocent man from a lengthy jail sentence. Standard Operating Procedure casts an unflinching eye over the incidents at Abu Ghraib prison that made front page news around the world in 2004.

It is a serious, chilling film that goes beyond the sensational to examine the whole ethos of military action and the unspeakable acts perpetrated in the name of democracy.

Everyone will recall the photos showing American military personnel abusing some of the detainees at Abu Ghraib, leading them by chains, cheerfully posing for the camera and carrying out psychological torture that was deemed beyond the bounds of the acceptable.

Morris interviews five of the seven so-called “bad apples” to build a picture of life in Abu Ghraib and the kind of intense, oppressive conditions that might have contributed to sane, normal individuals losing sight of their shared humanity. Morris also puts us into right into the heart of the action by recreating the prison as the kind of haunted house that might appear in a Hollywood horror film.

Morris has the good sense not to judge or challenge anyone but just allows them the space to condemn themselves with their own words and memories. Sabrina Harman claims that she was taking the pictures in order to expose the abuse to the world and you are never entirely sure whether you can take her claims at face value.

Morris has made an incredibly skilful, thought-provoking film revealing the way such acts of torture may well have been standard operating procedure. The only possible conclusion is that the soldiers exposed and punished were really just scapegoats for the higher echelons of the American military.

Selected national release

Director: Errol Morris
Cast: Janis Karpinski, Javal Davis, Lynndie Engand, Megan Ambuhl Graner Sabrina Harman.
Certificate: 15
Running time: 115 mins
Country: USA
Year: 2008