Standard Operating Procedure

"Life is not always fair..."

A first hand account from the mouth breathers who brought you the Abu Ghraib scandal. It's a disgraceful topic but the film itself gets buried in the mundane and obviously rehearsed explanations of the circumstances of the released photos by those who found themselves most associated with them. It goes without saying that higher ranking officials knew of and probably even encouraged these abuses but in no way do I feel sympathy for the people interviewed for this film. They knew what they were doing; most admit to laughing about it at the time but downplay their own actions and responsibility while simultaneously pointing the finger at their peers and superiors. I'm unsurprised not a single interviewee seems even remotely familiar with the result of the Nuremberg trials. And to those who are surprised we "were" capable of this, it's probably a good thing you apparently have no idea what we're capable of at this very moment.

Fantastic. Truly good storytelling, editing, etc. From start to finish a solid documentary.

A very tough movie to watch as I think no one would like to believe that we were capable of such acts. But regardless of the emotions I may feel about the content I think this is a well done documentary that shows the dark side of our nature. Truly, there was nothing standard about "Standard Operating Procedures".

What is the greater crime - torture, covering it up, or hanging young americans out to take the fall? Morris takes a very different approach to this touchy subject and carves a multi-faceted gem of a documentary that should have you considering what you would do in the Abu G. controversy if you were in the shoes of those implicated. I never thought I could feel empathy after seeing the infamous pictures of what took place at that prison, but this movie has helped me to walk a mile in another's shoes and consider their situation. Thank you Errol Morris.