Standard Operating Procedure (2008)

Director:

Errol Morris

Release Date:

29 May 2008 (Germany)

Genre:

Documentary | Crime | War

Tagline:

I wouldn't recommend a vacation to Iraq anytime soon

Plot:

Errol Morris examines the incidents of abuse and torture of suspected terrorists at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison. |

Plot Keywords:

Abu Ghraib | Torture | Prison | Abuse | Cooking

Awards:

1 win & 8 nominations

Cast

Megan Ambuhl Graner	...	Herself
Javal Davis	...	Himself
Ken Davis	...	Himself
Anthony Diaz	...	Himself - Former MP
Tim Dugan	...	Himself
Lynndie England	...	Herself
Jeffrey Frost	...	Himself - Former MP
Sabrina Harman	...	Herself
Janis Karpinski	...	Herself
Roman Krol	...	Himself
Brent Pack	...	Himself
Jeremy Sivits	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Christopher Bradley	...	Military Police (as Chris Bradley)
Sarah Denning	...	Military Police
Robin Dill	...	OGA
Joshua Feinman	...	Military Police (as Josh Feinman)
Jeff L. Green	...	Military Police (as Jeff Green)
Roy Halo	...	Detainee
Cyrus King	...	Military Intelligence
Alim Kouliev	...	OGA / Interrogator
Mike McCann	...	OGA / Interrogator
Daniel Novy	...	Military Police
Zhubin Rahbar	...	Detainee
Shaun Russell	...	Military Police
Kami Shahab	...	Detainee
Charity Sills	...	Military Intelligence
Leighton Strout	...	Detainee
Robert Dill	...	Translator (uncredited)
Merry Grissom	...	Interrogator (uncredited)
Combiz Shams	...	Iraqi Detainee (uncredited)

Directed by
Errol Morris

Produced by
Julie Ahlberg	....	producer
Amanda Branson Gill	....	co-producer
Robert Fernandez	....	executive producer
Errol Morris	....	producer
Ann Petrone	....	co-producer
Diane Weyermann	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Danny Elfman

Cinematography by
Robert Chappell		(director of photography)
Robert Richardson		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Andy Grieve
Steven Hathaway
Dan Mooney

Production Design by
Steve Hardie

Set Decoration by
John M. Kelly

Costume Design by
Marina Draghici

Makeup Department
Brad Look	....	key makeup artist
Donyale McRae	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Ron Ames	....	post-production supervisor
Laura Lyn Anderson	....	production supervisor (as Laura Anderson)
Mark Lipson	....	post-production supervisor
Brody McHugh	....	production supervisor
Dina Marie Piscatelli	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Shea Varge	....	second assistant director
Julian Wall	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Christopher Branan	....	carpenter
Jon Gold	....	property master
Larry Morgan	....	carpenter
Miles S. Richman	....	lead painter
Daniel Turk	....	construction coordinator

Sound Department
Jeremy Bowker	....	sound editor
Dustin Cawood	....	assistant sound designer
Lee Dichter	....	sound re-recording mixer
G. John Garrett	....	sound mixer
Pete Horner	....	sound effects editor
Pete Horner	....	sound re-recording mixer
Marc Mann	....	midi transcriptions
Darren McKenzie	....	midi transcriptions
John Nutt	....	supervising sound editor
Randy Thom	....	sound designer
Dror Gescheit	....	sound re-recordist (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Ron Ames	....	visual effects producer
Danny Braet	....	visual effects
Kyle Cooper	....	designer
Adam Gerstel	....	visual effects editor
Jesse Klein Seret	....	assistant visual effects editor (as Jesse Klein)
Stephen Lawes	....	compositor
Robert Legato	....	visual effects supervisor
Luke McDonald	....	visual effects
Nathaniel Park	....	visual effects editor
Richard Wardlow	....	visual effects

Stunts
William Devital	....	stunt rigger

Camera and Electrical Department
Todd Avery	....	second assistant camera
Eric Boyle	....	key grip
Mark J. Casey	....	electrician
Joe Christofori	....	first assistant camera
Scott D. Davis	....	gaffer
Tim Driscoll	....	key grip
Dan Hutchinson	....	electrician
John R. Kaplan	....	grip
Abby Levine	....	digital imaging technician
Steven Romeo	....	digital utility
John Vecchio	....	gaffer

Casting Department
Claire Benjamin	....	extras casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Carrie Dacre	....	set costumer
Roseann Milano	....	wardrobe supervisor

Editorial Department
Christine Carr	....	digital intermediate producer
Salvatore Catanzaro	....	on-line editor
Brad Fuller	....	co-editor
David Ian Salter	....	co-editor (as David Salter)
Karen Schmeer	....	co-editor
Jim Passon	....	color timer (uncredited)
Jorge Tanaka	....	digital intermediate assistant (uncredited)

Music Department
Pete Anthony	....	conductor
Michael Atwell	....	digital score recordist
Steve Bartek	....	orchestrator
Marc Mann	....	midi transcriptions
Darren McKenzie	....	midi transcriptions
Tim Rodier	....	music preparation
Shie Rozow	....	music editor
Dennis S. Sands	....	music scoring mixer
Edgardo Simone	....	orchestrator
Gina Zimmitti	....	music contractor

Other crew
Unjoo Lee Byars	....	title producer: Main/End Titles, Graphics
Maggie Causey	....	script supervisor
Kyle Cooper	....	title sequence: designer
Erin Henning	....	production assistant
Raymond Hernandez	....	production assistant
Daniel Izui	....	production assistant
Zach Lazar	....	stage manager
Lindy Lucas	....	production secretary
Mike Mollica	....	production assistant
TeNeil Moore	....	production coordinator
Sean Robert O'Keefe	....	production assistant
Daniel Polsby	....	assistant to director
Allan Rafael	....	set production assistant
Derek Rimelspach	....	production assistant
Ellen Stafford	....	producer: main/end titles
George Whitman	....	key set production assistant
Sven Zuege	....	title designer: end titles, Prologue Films
Seth Kleinberg	....	technical producer: main and end titles and visual effects (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Participant Productions
• Sony Pictures Classics (co-production)

Distributors

• Sony Pictures Classics (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• Sony Pictures Releasing (2008) (Germany) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Sony Pictures Releasing (2008) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Cinema Mondo (2008) (Finland) (all media)
• LK-TEL (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2009) (Germany) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Sony Pictures Releasing (2008) (Argentina) (all media)

Other Companies

• Central Casting  extras casting
• Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment  dollies
• Jeff Rosenman Casting  casting
• Prologue Films  titles
• Varèse Sarabande  soundtrack

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated R for disturbing images and content involving torture and graphic nudity, and for language

Runtime:

116 min | Germany:118 min (Berlin International Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (British Columbia/Ontario) | Australia:MA | Germany:18 | UK:15 | Singapore:M18 | Argentina:13 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Mexico:C | France:U (with warning)

Company:

Participant Productions

Trivia:

First documentary ever to be nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival (2008).

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert: Episode dated 3 May 2008" (2008)

Too tight a focus on a familiar subject without the searing questions, bigger picture or soul-searching that it required

Errol Morris has covered some interesting and weird subjects and I found his last film (Fog of War) to be quite fascinating, so I was looking forward to seeing where he went next. I was quite surprised that he chose to do a documentary on Iraq. Sure, it is totally the subject of our time but it has become a very cluttered subject – not only in documentary films but also the amount of news coverage etc that is available. When I learnt that the film would be a tight focus on Abu Ghraib I hoped that Morris would explore the total human aspect of it and do a really good job of delivering this part of it.

Unfortunately what Morris manages to produce is a film that is solid but not as remarkable as the subject deserves. Part of this, it must be said, is familiarity with the subject; having seen many films that do it better. Taxi to the Dark Side comes to mind specifically because it uses the prison as its starting point before following the smell upwards and outwards to paint a much bigger picture of failure and things that are impacting beyond specific acts of torture. By remaining within the world of the prison, Morris potentially could do enough to standout as being THE film on the subject. The early signs are good because I was surprised to see several of the main names/faces that I knew from the news coverage of the scandal and thus this was going to be the story from those involved firsthand. This was a gamble in a way because the problem with the aftermath of Abu Ghraib was that it was only the "little people" that got the spotlight and nobody else and, by focusing on them, Morris needed to get a lot from them or else his film would end up the same way.

He does this to a point as they discuss in detail what they did and what they saw and it does still have the power to shock and depress. In some regards the anger described makes the violence a little understandable but what I was shocked by was the sheer banality and boredom-inspired viciousness of it all. It helps this aspect that so many of the contributions are delivered in such matter-of-fact manners that it does jar that they don't seem shocked by what they are describing. The truth is probably that they aren't – partly because it was "normal" but also that they have discussed it many times. Everyone is a bit defensive and Morris doesn't ever manage to draw much emotion from them in the telling – factually the material is engaging but Morris never really gets beyond that. While "Taxi to the Dark Side" moved up the chain of command, Morris needed to move into his interviewees' soul – something he doesn't manage to do.

The second failing of the film is the overuse of "recreated" scenes and asides. In Thin Blue Line, it cost him (at very least) an Oscar nomination but here it has a negative impact immediately as you are watching it. With so much shocking reality to discuss and so many real images, some of the recreations are clunky in how out of place they are. I'm not talking about the creative sequences that Morris uses as a bed for dialogue (eg a cellblock full of shredded paper, the letters written back to a partner in the US) but rather the recreations and stuff "around" the pictures. It was unnecessary and distracted from what as real and powerful enough.

The film still works as a good summary of events within Abu Ghraib but it is hard to get excited about it since so much of it feels familiar. The tight focus itself is not an issue but it is when Morris cannot manage to produce searing questions, a bigger picture or intimate soul-searching it doesn't ever do anything that makes it standout in a crowded marketplace.