Moxie User Rating

8.5 stars out of 10 (2 votes)  -  login or register to rate this film

Synopsis

Is it possible for a photograph to change the world? Photographs taken by soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison changed the war in Iraq and changed America's image of itself. Yet, a central mystery remains: Did the notorious Abu Ghraib photographs constitute evidence of systematic abuse by the American military, or were they documenting the aberrant behavior of a few "bad apples"? Director Errol Morris (The Fog of War) set out to examine the context of these photographs, talking directly to the soldiers who took them and who were in them. After two years of investigation, he amassed a million and a half words of interview transcript, thousands of pages of unredacted reports, and hundreds of photographs. The story of Abu Ghraib is still shrouded in moral ambiguity, but it is now clear what happened there.

Film Information

• Genre: Documentary
• Director: Errol Morris
• Starring: Christopher Bradley, Sarah Denning, Joshua Feinman, Jeff L. Green, Merry Grissom, Cyrus King, Daniel Novy, and Zhubin Rahbar
• Running Time: 118 minutes, approx.
• MPAA Rating: R for disturbing images and content involving torture and graphic nudity, and for language
• Language: English
• Official Site

Reviews

"With STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE, the Iraq War finally has its Hearts And Minds."

   - Scott Tobias, The Onion (A.V. Club)

"Disturbing, analytical and morose. This is not a "political" film nor yet another screed about the Bush administration or the war in Iraq. It is driven simply, powerfully, by the desire to understand those photographs."

   - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"Morris challenges us to understand what the pictures show and what they don't show, and to see them in context. And he confronts us with the most important question surrounding them: Do they reveal a crime, an aberration in the system or standard operating procedure?"

   - Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Morris, using a welter of photographs (many of which we haven't seen), constructs a day-to-day sense of how Abu Ghraib descended into a medieval hell."

   - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

"At this late date there is little that is factually revelatory about his film, but as a human document of what people are capable of in wartime, it's indispensable."

   - Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

Showtimes

• Wednesday, June 25th
  9:30 pm
• Thursday, June 26th
  7:00 pm
• Friday, June 27th
  9:30 pm
• Saturday, June 28th
  7:00 pm
• Sunday, June 29th
  7:00 pm
• Monday, June 30th
  9:30 pm
• Tuesday, July 1st
  9:30 pm