Did you know that if you search the top rated documentaries of all time at the Internet Movie Database, you’ll find that the majority of those listed in the past five or six years are about the Iraq war or the blunders of the US and its foreign activities? That’s something of interest, that there’s so much push from this subset of filmmakers, the documentary makers, to inform the masses about the mistakes our country has made. Since these mistakes directly affects us Muslims, particularly those in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and (indirectly) here in the US, it would bring us benefit for us to get informed on the topics that have made it to the top rated lists.

So with that in mind, has anybody seen or know anything about this film on the Abu Ghuraib scandals, Standard Operating Procedure? It looks interesting, and reminds me of the excellent must see documentary, Road To Guantanamo.It’s gotten pretty good reviews, like the 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and four starts from Roger Ebert. People who gave positive reviews said director Errol Morris did a good job of taking the scandal and turning it into an emotional documentary, focusing on the story through the accounts of former soldiers by way of interviews. However there’s some interesting rebuttal against the documentary I found on amazon.com’s DVD listing for the film written by a former US solider.

The self-proclaimed soldier criticized Morris because the film only gives the “tip of the iceberg” on this issue, namely because the soldiers are given the most attention and, thus, the most scrutiny. The soldier argues, instead, that the fingers should be pointed to those higher than the soldiers on site, the higher ups. One of the interviewees, Janis Karpinski, former head of US prisons in Iraq, says the same thing (not about the film but in general): the heat lamp needs to be on those that were in charge, and the fact is, it isn’t.

Still, a tip is better than nothing, especially for these types of issues.

Also, the reviews and this preview from CNN, display that the director is all about showing the “human” side to these soldiers is a bit weird. Not to say that they weren’t human beings, but considering their actions were at minimum inhumane, I hope the film doesn’t show any justification to their actions by way of “character conflict” or “development”. I don’t think it will, because the director managed to get some pretty inside people interviewed who seem to reveal a lot, like Janis Karpinski and how she got demoted right after she spoke out (coincidence, anyone?)

Still, I wonder if it’s worth while watching. Has anyone seen it that can provide some more info on it? And if anyone’s down to watch it with me, holler.

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