Standard Operating Procedure
starring: Christopher Bradley, Sarah Denning, Robin Dill, Joshua Feinman, Jeff L. Green
directed by: Errol Morris
directed by: Errol Morris
List Price: $19.94
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Product Description:
WITNESS ONE OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS MOMENTS IN RECENT U.S. MILITARY HISTORY. ENTER ABU GHRAIB. THIS AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY UNCOVERS THE DRAMATIC SERIES OF EVENTS THAT LED TO TORTURE, INTERNATIONAL OUTRAGE & FORCED A PRESIDENT TO APOLOGIZE TO THE WORLD.
Amazon.com:
It's impossible to talk about Standard Operating Procedure without referencing Taxi to the Dark Side. Fortunately, both documentaries are vital to any discussion about US military interrogation techniques. While Alex Gibney's Oscar winner uses the death of an Iraqi taxi driver as a framing device, director Errol Morris and writer Philip Gourevitch (We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families) examine the issue through visual evidence (they also collaborated on a book of the same name). While Gibney concentrates on Bhagram, Morris focuses on Abu Ghraib, but his self-described "non-fiction horror film," which features a dramatic Danny Elfman score and slow-motion reenactments, runs along two tracks. First, he aims to find out what happened at the infamous institution. Along with the photographs and video footage, he speaks to the guards and the brigadier general who oversaw their operations, including former army specialist Lynndie England, who has all the charm of Aileen Wuornos (so memorably immortalized in Monster). As in his Thin Blue Line, accounts contradict other accounts. In Morris's world, absolute truth doesn't exist; it's up to viewers to decide which subjects seem most reliable. This leads to his parallel goal, which is to question the reliability of imagery. Photography was prohibited at Abu Ghraib, so he identifies the responsible parties, the reasoning behind their rule-breaking, and the stories behind the most incendiary pictures. If less emotionally engaging than Gibney's feature, Standard Operating Procedure is just as essential--and every bit as disturbing. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
WITNESS ONE OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS MOMENTS IN RECENT U.S. MILITARY HISTORY. ENTER ABU GHRAIB. THIS AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY UNCOVERS THE DRAMATIC SERIES OF EVENTS THAT LED TO TORTURE, INTERNATIONAL OUTRAGE & FORCED A PRESIDENT TO APOLOGIZE TO THE WORLD.
Amazon.com:
It's impossible to talk about Standard Operating Procedure without referencing Taxi to the Dark Side. Fortunately, both documentaries are vital to any discussion about US military interrogation techniques. While Alex Gibney's Oscar winner uses the death of an Iraqi taxi driver as a framing device, director Errol Morris and writer Philip Gourevitch (We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families) examine the issue through visual evidence (they also collaborated on a book of the same name). While Gibney concentrates on Bhagram, Morris focuses on Abu Ghraib, but his self-described "non-fiction horror film," which features a dramatic Danny Elfman score and slow-motion reenactments, runs along two tracks. First, he aims to find out what happened at the infamous institution. Along with the photographs and video footage, he speaks to the guards and the brigadier general who oversaw their operations, including former army specialist Lynndie England, who has all the charm of Aileen Wuornos (so memorably immortalized in Monster). As in his Thin Blue Line, accounts contradict other accounts. In Morris's world, absolute truth doesn't exist; it's up to viewers to decide which subjects seem most reliable. This leads to his parallel goal, which is to question the reliability of imagery. Photography was prohibited at Abu Ghraib, so he identifies the responsible parties, the reasoning behind their rule-breaking, and the stories behind the most incendiary pictures. If less emotionally engaging than Gibney's feature, Standard Operating Procedure is just as essential--and every bit as disturbing. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Imprisoned - The Paradox Of Trying To Maintain Ethical Behavior In Chambers Of Torture
This is an excellent film documenting abuses by the US Military and US Military Intelligence services at the Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq War.For general background on the events at Abu Gharib, you can visit Wikipedia or do news article searches.
This film is valuable not only because it reveals more information about the events, but also because it allows some of the Military personnel involved to tell their own stories.These stories may be true or they may simply be self-serving ... Read More
Rating: 
- S.O.P. or S.O.B's.
Standard Operating Procedure is an inexpensively made documentary of Americans who committed atrocities against people they were there to liberate instead of humiliate or obliterate. There are interviews with the cast of characters who participated in these degradations, including one sergeant who reported abuse, a chastened piece of trailer trash named Lynndie England, and Brigadier General (BG) Janis Karpinski. The most sickening part of all were the pictures of inmates forming pyramids and pictures of ... Read More
Rating: 
- Standard Operating Procedure - Blu-ray Info
Version: U.S.A / Sony / Region A, B, C
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
MPEG-4 AVC / AACS / High Profile 4.1
Running time: 1:55:51
Feature size: 32,58 GB
Disc size: 46,23 GB
Total bit rate: 37.50 Mbps
Average video bit rate: 25.28 Mbps
Dolby TrueHD AudioEnglish 2909 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2909 kbps / 24-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Dolby TrueHD AudioFrench1257 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1257 kbps / ... Read More
Rating: - fails in many ways - mostly a waste of time
I was very disappointed with this movie.
It drags on in the same style and tone for nearly two hours.
There is too liberal use of the depressing musical score.
The movie covers just a slim wedge of a very large story. It lets a few people who were at the prison, who were peripherally involved in the worst incidents, vent their versions of the story. Each of these persons has an axe to grind. Without more context, I cannot tell how credible each one is. Are they trying ... Read More
Rating: - "When Your Are In a War, Things Change."
In Standard Operating Procedure, the acclaimed director Erroll Morris turns his unique directorial eye towards the fiasco of Abu Ghraib prison. Morris's films (Dr. Death, Fog of War) tend to focus on the dark side of human psychology, and this film is no different. Through interviews with those involved in the strange incidents of torture at Abu Ghraib - inlcuding Lindy England - we get to see the human faces on the seemingly inhuman (or at very least, unAmerican) acts of torture that came to plague Abu Ghraib. ... Read More
- Imprisoned - The Paradox Of Trying To Maintain Ethical Behavior In Chambers Of TortureThis is an excellent film documenting abuses by the US Military and US Military Intelligence services at the Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq War.For general background on the events at Abu Gharib, you can visit Wikipedia or do news article searches.
This film is valuable not only because it reveals more information about the events, but also because it allows some of the Military personnel involved to tell their own stories.These stories may be true or they may simply be self-serving ... Read More
- S.O.P. or S.O.B's.Standard Operating Procedure is an inexpensively made documentary of Americans who committed atrocities against people they were there to liberate instead of humiliate or obliterate. There are interviews with the cast of characters who participated in these degradations, including one sergeant who reported abuse, a chastened piece of trailer trash named Lynndie England, and Brigadier General (BG) Janis Karpinski. The most sickening part of all were the pictures of inmates forming pyramids and pictures of ... Read More
- Standard Operating Procedure - Blu-ray InfoVersion: U.S.A / Sony / Region A, B, C
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
MPEG-4 AVC / AACS / High Profile 4.1
Running time: 1:55:51
Feature size: 32,58 GB
Disc size: 46,23 GB
Total bit rate: 37.50 Mbps
Average video bit rate: 25.28 Mbps
Dolby TrueHD AudioEnglish 2909 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2909 kbps / 24-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Dolby TrueHD AudioFrench1257 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1257 kbps / ... Read More
- fails in many ways - mostly a waste of timeI was very disappointed with this movie.
It drags on in the same style and tone for nearly two hours.
There is too liberal use of the depressing musical score.
The movie covers just a slim wedge of a very large story. It lets a few people who were at the prison, who were peripherally involved in the worst incidents, vent their versions of the story. Each of these persons has an axe to grind. Without more context, I cannot tell how credible each one is. Are they trying ... Read More
- "When Your Are In a War, Things Change."In Standard Operating Procedure, the acclaimed director Erroll Morris turns his unique directorial eye towards the fiasco of Abu Ghraib prison. Morris's films (Dr. Death, Fog of War) tend to focus on the dark side of human psychology, and this film is no different. Through interviews with those involved in the strange incidents of torture at Abu Ghraib - inlcuding Lindy England - we get to see the human faces on the seemingly inhuman (or at very least, unAmerican) acts of torture that came to plague Abu Ghraib. ... Read More
