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SYNOPSIS:
Witness one of the worst debacles in American military history.
Enter Abu Ghraib. You’ve seen the photographs on the
nightly news: the naked prisoners, the pyramid of degraded
captives, and the infamous thumbs-up grin of the young female
corporal standing guard over them all. Now, come inside and
see the true story of the men and women who crossed the thin
line between interrogation and torture. Errol Morris's award-winning
documentary takes you behind the bars of the 21st century's
most infamous prison and the acts that forced a president
to apologise to the world.
MOVIE
REVIEW
This is a horror film. It is so horrifying that we
guarantee you will lose sleep for a while after watching it.
But we are also urging you strongly to watch it – because
it is only then you will understand the horrors of human nature,
and what humanity really is like in the face of circumstances.
Directed by Errol Morris (The Fog of War), this documentary
is so educationally enlightening and powerfully affecting,
we are wondering why no local distributor secured the rights
to screen it here theatrically.
You
would have heard about the photographs taken by soldiers in
the Abu Gharib prison that changed how the world looked at
America. This documentary sets out to explore the real stories
behind the photographs, and the impact they have on different
people. Through interviews with the key personnel involved
in the Abu Gharib photograph scandals, including involved
military personnel, investigators and high ranked officers,
you are left with questions of ethics, morals, values and
the fundamentals of being a human being.
Sure,
you may have seen the graphically disturbing pictures on news
reports; you may have Google-d them while doing a research
paper on terrorism; you may even have YouTube-d the video
out of curiosity, but those are nothing compared to how the
archived materials are used in this film. Together with the
interviewees’ narration, they become so potently relevant
that you feel like being at the dreaded prison when the degrading
tortures and humiliating interrogations happened.
Through
visually brilliant reenactments (this is the best use of extreme
close ups and slow motions we’ve seen so far), viewers
are given a sense of the horrors that went on in captivity.
Danny Elfman’s minimalist score also adds a nice touch
to the picture.
The
documentary is also about knowing people. The interviewees’
heartfelt transcripts shed light on their personalities and
after the film’s 116 minutes runtime, you feel that
you have gotten to understand them better. Be it the female
soldier who was willing to do anything for the man she loved,
the investigator who uncovered the cover up with technology
or the soldier who witnessed an already dead convict being
tortured, these interviewees honest answers and expressions
will be haunting you for a long time, as they will be probably
plaguing them for the rest of their lives.
This
intense and provoking documentary isn’t easy to sit
through. It rises questions of what goes on outside a picture
frame, what the administration’s priorities really are
and the whole big subject matter of what the truth is really
all about. You can see how well researched this documentary
is, and understand why it took home the Silver Berlin Bear
awarded by the Jury Grand Prix at the 2008 Berlin International
Film Festival. You shudder at the thought of how mentally
disturbed you’d be after watching this film, but we
can assure you, it’s a piece of essential watching that
is certainly well worth your time.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 disc includes an insightful Commentary
with Director Errol Morris where you’d hear
the filmmaker questioning about his own beliefs and thanking
everyone involved in the production – we can understand
how emotionally draining it is to put this together. There
are also nine Additional Scenes including
a brief segment about the Americanized construction of Abu
Gharib and a touching Christmas letter written by one of the
interviewees. Also included is the Original Theatrical
Trailer and Previews of other Sony
releases like Redbelt, The Children of Huang Shi and Felon.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
movie’s visual transfer is pristinely clear and is can
be watched in English, French or Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital
audio track.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
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