TopTenREVIEWS presents the movie reviews of Standard Operating Procedure (2008)

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Standard Operating Procedure (2008)

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All Time

of 190,142

1,591

2000's

of 34,011

452

2008

of 688

13
Documentary
- Documentary All Time
  
  of 20,612
  
  99
  
  Documentary of 2008
  
  of 52
  
  4
  
  Documentary of the 2000's
  
  of 3,974
  
  72

Ratings and rankings are based on number of movie, review scores, awards & other criteria.

Standard Operating Procedure (2008) is ranked overall as out of 4 stars

Overall Rating:2.9287

Avg Critic Score:2.9071

Standard Operating Procedure (2008) Rank 3 Reviews

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54.26%

17.02%

3.19%

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EricDSnider.com (Eric D. Snider)

Errol Morris is the best documentary filmmaker currently working, maybe the best ever. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at EricDSnider.com (Eric D. Snider)

Reeling Reviews (Laura Clifford)

Errol Morris set out to demonstrate that the picture doesn't necessarily tell the story... ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Reeling Reviews (Laura Clifford)

Compuserve (Harvey S. Karten)

Though the humiliating treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib has been shown before, Errol Morris creatively uses re-enactments and animation to hammer home his points. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Compuserve (Harvey S. Karten)

Houston Chronicle (Amy Biancolli)

The result is a devastating film, and an important one. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Houston Chronicle (Amy Biancolli)

Film Threat ()

When you think of Abu Ghraib, the U.S. run prison set up to house those deemed a threat during the U.S. insurgence in Iraq, what do you think of? O.K., perhaps Iâ��m being a little coy as mere mention of Abu Ghraib automatically conjures images of ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Film Threat ()

Standard Operating Procedure (2008) Critic Reviews continued...

Orlando Sentinel (Roger Moore)

Standard Operating Procedure feels like a historical work in progress, brilliant, thought-provoking but incomplete. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Orlando Sentinel (Roger Moore)

Baltimore Sun (Michael Sragow)

Standard Operating Procedure catalyzes unexpected and often harrowing blends of outrage, sympathy and sorrow. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Baltimore Sun (Michael Sragow)

The Guardian (Peter Bradshaw)

The queasy apprehension of pure evil is what Errol Morris's new documentary appears to offer; it is a series of interviews with those people responsible - some of them, anyway - for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal of 2003. Digital photos showed US soldiers ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at The Guardian (Peter Bradshaw)

Time Out London (Trevor Johnston)

After tackling Vietnam-era US defense secretary Robert S McNamara, Errol Morris investigates the shocking photos which emerged from Abu Ghraib. The shots of leashes and piled-up bodies snapped by US military personnel are now over-familiar â�� but what ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Time Out London (Trevor Johnston)

New York Times (Manohla Dargis)

It is, predictably, a bleak, depressing movie, but if you stick around through the end credits, you may also be in for a few surprises. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at New York Times (Manohla Dargis)

efilmcritic.com (Peter Sobczynski)

Ever since he made the masterful 1988 documentary â��The Thin Blue Line,â�� a film that made such a convincing case for the innocence of a man who landed on death row for the murder of a Texas police officer that it resulted in his being cleared of all ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at efilmcritic.com (Peter Sobczynski)

ViewLondon (Matthew Turner)

Engaging, well-made documentary that will provoke outrage, shock and horror in equal measure. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at ViewLondon (Matthew Turner)

Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)

Focus is really the heart of Morris' unsettling film, which strikes a remarkable balance between art and disturbance, between beauty and pain. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Michael Machosky)

There are very few big-name documentary filmmakers who could be trusted with a subject as complex and difficult as the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Michael Machosky)

Twitch (Michael Guillen)

Remember the cautionary adage that too much of a good thing might be bad for you? Would it follow through inversely that too much of a bad thing might be good for you? Recent documentaries on ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Twitch (Michael Guillen)

The Miami Herald (Rene Rodriguez)

Movies about the Iraq War haven't exactly been luring audiences to the multiplex, and a documentary focusing on the Abu Ghraib photographs depicting prisoner abuse and torture is inevitably going to be an even harder sell. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at The Miami Herald (Rene Rodriguez)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The latter title might have fit his new film as well, which analyzes the prisoner-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Derived from two years of interviews and hundreds of photographs, "Standard Operating Procedure" seems so overwhelmed by contradictory ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at St. Louis Post-Dispatch

San Francisco Chronicle (Mick LaSalle)

Morris widens our understanding of the real crimes that took place there. This is where the movie becomes not just a slant on history but also a vehicle for broadening our understanding. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at San Francisco Chronicle (Mick LaSalle)

Palo Alto Online (Susan Tavernetti)

Errol Morris isn't interested in amassing evidence of orchestrated human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, as Alex Gibney's "Taxi to the Dark Side" does with prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Nor does the Oscar-winning documentarian of ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Palo Alto Online (Susan Tavernetti)

Philadelphia Inquirer (Carrie Rickey)

Now, here comes Errol Morris, the Oscar-winning documentarian of The Fog of War (about former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and the Vietnam military action) asking what, exactly, the pictures prove. And posing hard questions about the snapshots ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Philadelphia Inquirer (Carrie Rickey)

One Guy's Opinion (Frank Swietek)

Coolly intense...If the film is only partially successful...the goal remains important, and Morris' commitment to it is laudable. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at One Guy's Opinion (Frank Swietek)

Toronto Star (Peter Howell)

A documentary inquiry into the photographs of prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Directed by Errol Morris. At the Cumberland. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Toronto Star (Peter Howell)

New York Magazine (David Edelstein)

See Standard Operating Procedure for its riveting narrative, for the way it keeps looping backâ��to the swirls of Danny Elfmanâ��s night musicâ��to the basement of Abu Ghraib. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at New York Magazine (David Edelstein)

New York Daily News (Joe Neumaier)

Morris mixes piercing sit-downs with disturbing evidence. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at New York Daily News (Joe Neumaier)

Globe and Mail ()

Still photographs reveal and obscure, speak the truth and dissemble, freeze a single moment in time yet ignore the context beyond that frozen moment. Those infamous photographs taken within the walls of Abu Ghraib, depicting the humiliation and torture ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Globe and Mail ()

Newark Star-Ledger (Stephen Whitty)

This film does have Morris' estimable style, grace and control. From the very first moment, as the music starts and the images of Iraq begin, we feel as if we're being led someplace. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Newark Star-Ledger (Stephen Whitty)

Associated Press (Christy Lemire)

As Spc. Jeremy Sivitz puts it with great understatement, 'When you're in war, things change.' Morris forces us to ask ourselves what we would have done in their position, whether or not we like the answer. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Associated Press (Christy Lemire)

National Post

They lived in dirty, chilly concrete cellblocks, under constant threat of mortar attacks, living on the most basic forms of pre-packaged food. And these were the U.S. military garrison personnel who ran Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad in the fall of 2003. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at National Post

Screen International

Whatever the future brings in Iraq, the US role there will always be remembered for the abuse of prisoners documented in the photographs taken by American guards in 2003 at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. Errol Morris's cold Standard Operating ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Screen International

Reel.com

There have been two documentaries thus far that deal specifically with the actions taken by the group of military police that resulted in the infamous actions and photographs from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The first, Alex Gibney's acute Taxi to the Dark ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Reel.com

Metromix.com (Matt Pais)

Reflects the incomprehensible experience of going to war and the ease of twisting the rules as long as there's no proof. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Metromix.com (Matt Pais)

filmcritic.com (Chris Cabin)

Engrossing if inexcusably flashy ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at filmcritic.com (Chris Cabin)

Lobo Howls (Judith Wolfe)

The Interrotron sounds like a torture device out of Star Trek, does it not? Errol Morris, the Oscar winning director of Fog of War (http://www.judithwolfe.com/lobosmoviereviews/reviews/fogofwar.html) and the amazing Thin Blue Line created a unique lens ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Lobo Howls (Judith Wolfe)

ComingSoon.net (Edward Douglas)

A gorgeous and harrowing film made by a master craftsman at the top of his game that probably won't hold much interest ... light entertainment, this is not. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at ComingSoon.net (Edward Douglas)

HollywoodChicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

Director Errol Morris tackled the Iraqi prison subject -- among the mass of recent Iraq war documentaries -- because he 'wasn't sure anyone else would tell it if I didn't tell it'. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at HollywoodChicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

Jam! Movies (Jim Slotek)

If imaginative presentation is Standard Operating Procedure's biggest fault (and it does arguably create a dispassionate tone, ill-befitting an atrocity), it does make two hours of talking heads easier to absorb. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Jam! Movies (Jim Slotek)

The Age

"Give me the ocular proof," Othello told Iago, and much good it did him. Filmmaker Errol Morris quoted this line in a recent interview about his new film, Standard Operating Procedure. It was an intriguing reference from a documentary maker who has been ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at The Age

Chicago Tribune (Matt Pais)

The film doesn't go up the chain of command to ask how this happened or who was giving the orders. But even if the rhythm of the photos and the stories becomes a bit redundant, the horror that it happened at all makes it worth seeing and discussing. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Chicago Tribune (Matt Pais)

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (John Beifuss)

Errol Morris has become the Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese of documentary filmmaking, with all the positives and negatives that rather facile comparison implies. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (John Beifuss)

The Denver Post

This is hardly a spoiler for a documentary that can't resolve its, and our, darkest quandaries. But at the end of Errol Morris' "Standard Operating Procedure," Tim Dugan talks about the hundreds of birds that lived in the date palms outside Abu Ghraib ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at The Denver Post

Time Out New York ()

A hooded man standing on a box. A prisoner cowering from a barking dog. A grotesque pyramid of naked Arab men; behind them, you can see a smiling American soldier. This is what happens, these images tell us, when power is abused and any semblance of ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Time Out New York ()

Lessons of Darkness (Nick Schager)

A semiotics-tinged investigation into the nature of images themselves: how the contents, arrangement, and manipulation of the frame all affect interpretation and help define meaning. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Lessons of Darkness (Nick Schager)

Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Hearing nearly two hours' worth of fairly graphic descriptions of torture and other abuses of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq becomes a grueling experience. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Miami Herald (Rene Rodriguez)

As unappetizing as the subject may seem, Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure exerts a hypnotic pull anyway. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Miami Herald (Rene Rodriguez)

Christianity Today (Peter T. Chattaway)

The wounds of Abu Ghraib are still so fresh, we may not be ready to transcend them just yet. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Christianity Today (Peter T. Chattaway)

WCBE's It's Movie Time (John DeSando)

Any film that reveals the manipulation of neocons such as Donald Rumsfeld has my full attention and sympathy. Errol Morris's Standard Operating Procedure, however, is not his Fog of War. In the latter, the images and testimonies make their case without ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at WCBE's It's Movie Time (John DeSando)

Chicago Tribune (Michael Phillips)

Itâ��s gut-grinding, to be sure. But a misjudged degree of cinematic dazzle obscures the outrages at the core of â��Standard Operating Procedure,â�� director Errol Morrisâ�� first documentary since â��The Fog of War,â�� and the first Iraq documentary to ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Chicago Tribune (Michael Phillips)

Philadelphia Daily News (Gary Thompson)

Morris has a hole card, though. He got most of the abusers involved in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal to talk, on camera. We get to hear guards explain, firsthand, why they humiliated ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Philadelphia Daily News (Gary Thompson)

Newsweek (Robert Cashill)

"Ambitious but flawed." ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Newsweek (Robert Cashill)

Chicago Tribune (Michael Phillips)

A misjudged degree of cinematic dazzle obscures the outrages at the core of Standard Operating Procedure, director Errol Morris' first documentary since The Fog of War, and the first Iraq documentary to focus on the infamous Abu Ghraib photo ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Chicago Tribune (Michael Phillips)

Richmond Times-Dispatch

The faces are familiar -- the big smile, the ever-present thumbs-up. We're used to seeing them next to the naked, humiliated and beaten prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. ...read the complete Standard Operating Procedure movie review at Richmond Times-Dispatch

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