A Life in Movies: Errol Morris | Newsweek Movies

Have We Softened Up On Torture?
Dahlia Lithwick 4/25/2009 12:00:00 AM
In April of 2004, the world learned that American soldiers in Iraq had abused prisoners at the Abu Ghraib Prison. Images first revealed on CBS and in The New Yorker showed hooded prisoners standing on a box with wires attached to their hands and genitals; piles of naked prisoners stacked into a pyramid; prisoners forced to simulate sexual acts, often with grinning GIs on hand to point and offer a jaunty thumbs up. The reaction to Abu Ghraib was swift and bipartisan. Within days, President George W. Bush had offered a public apology for "the terrible and horrible acts," and his secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, took "full responsibility" for the scandal, promising the offenders would be brought to justice because the victims "are human beings. They were in U.S. custody. Our country had an obligation to treat them right. We didn't do that." With the exception of a handful of outliers—Rush Limbaugh said the abuse was "no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation," and Sen. James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, claimed to be "more outraged by the outrage than … by the treatment"—American reaction was universal revulsion.
WORTH YOUR TIME
A Kitchen Confidential
Andrew Romano 4/25/2009 12:00:00 AM
No experience is as universal as the loss of a loved one, which makes the memoir of grief an unusual, and often unappealing, literary genre. We know, of course, why the bereaved author has put pen to paper; he needs to cope. What we don't know is why we need to read his outpourings. Unless the sob story is both resonant and new, we might as well make do with our own ineluctable misery, thank you very much.
SOCIETY & THE ARTS
Out From The Shadows
Sophie Grove 2/7/2009 12:00:00 AM
In Ramin Haerizadeh's photo montage "Men of Allah," bearded figures pout and lounge languidly among intricate Persian patterns. The series of sensuous, sexually ambiguous semi-nudes, created in secret in Tehran, is a bold critique of gender roles in Iranian society, representing what the artist has called "closet queens." In London, the cavorting, hairy limbs are considered risqué. In a society with few civil liberties, and where homosexuality is vehemently denied, these rich, sumptuous images are rudely subversive.
LAW
The Truth About Torture
Stuart Taylor Jr. 7/12/2008 12:00:00 AM
Dark deeds have been conducted in the name of the United States government in recent years: the gruesome, late-night circus at Abu Ghraib, the beating to death of captives in Afghanistan, and the officially sanctioned waterboarding and brutalization of high-value Qaeda prisoners. Now demands are growing for senior administration officials to be held accountable and punished. Congressional liberals, human-rights groups and other activists are urging a criminal investigation into high-level "war crimes," including the Bush administration's approval of interrogation methods considered by many to be torture.
ENTERTAINMENT
Spring Movie Guide
4/4/2008 12:00:00 AM
Some of the best films to come along in the last few years have been documentaries. This spring's crop, which features films from Martin Scorsese, Errol Morris and Morgan Spurlock, features music (the Stones), investigative journalism (Abu Ghraib) and humor (about Osama bin Laden). Documentaries often have more drama than a fiction film and more laughs than your average wacky comedy, so don't let the word "documentary" scare you away.
DOCUMENTARIES
Snapshots of Horror
Christopher Dickey
"When you see a picture, you don't see outside the frame," one of the American soldiers convicted for dereliction of duty at Abu Ghraib Prison told filmmaker Errol Morris. Maybe people think they know all there is to know, or all they want to know, about the hundreds of snapshots taken in that distilled hell created by American occupation forces in Iraq in 2003. But the truly savage beatings that did take place at Abu Ghraib—at least one of which ended an Iraqi's life—weren't caught on camera. And if a young woman soldier who hoped someday to be a forensic photographer had not taken detailed shots of the corpse left behind by interrogators in one of the prison's fetid showers, we probably would not have known about that case, either.