Standard Operating Procedure

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My review of Standard Operating Procedure on Blu-ray Disc is online at FilmFreakCentral.net

There’s a tension in Errol Morris’ Standard Operating Procedure between the subject matter-the torture and humiliation of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad during the U.S. occupation of Iraq-and what Morris is really up to. Anyone who’s read his excellent “Zoom” blog for The New York Times, including his brilliant, three-part consideration of the pedigree of two different photographs taken by Roger Fenton during the Crimean War, knows that the director is concerned lately with the methodical, emotionless investigation of the circumstances surrounding a picture’s taking. He wants to know what a photo conceals in addition to what it reveals-what’s happening outside its spatial frame? Its temporal boundaries?

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