DVD OF THE WEEK

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE *****
Dir: Errol Morris

Everyone has by now seen the photographs that were taken by soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison. In fact, with a new administration in the White House the last thing people probably want to do is revisit this dark stain on American history.
But this documentary uncovers even more than its tag-line suggests. The tag-line is, however, very relevant. 'The scandal was the cover-up”. That puts things very succinctly and, as is implied many times here, it was the outrage and scandal itself emanating from the Pentagon and White House, that served as the true cover-up of a systematic breaking of international law.
What this documentary does is go through the events in interviews with the actual soldiers who took the photographs and were the captors at Abu Ghraib. Unlike the recent Taxi To The Darkside, which explored the horror of innocents held and tortured, this gives the side of the jailors.
And it is fascinating and deeply complex. This is the Full Metal Jacket of war documentaries, showing the dehumanisation of young men and women as they are thrown into unimaginable situations. And for all the sympathy that you feel for them – following orders and scapegoated by the army for 'embarrassing the president” – this is too intelligent and difficult a film to exonerate them. We hear their words and look at the pictures (many previously unseen) and a huge divide develops. These are ordinary people, normal folk, but obviously still in denial in many ways over the terrible things they have seen and done.
Brilliant.

Revenge flicks seem all the rage at the moment, especially with a 'respectable” actor in the lead. Thus, following Jodie Foster in The Brave One and Kevin Bacon in Death Sentence we have Liam Neeson in Taken (**). Liam is a paranoid retired 'security expert” whose worst fears are realised when after – against his better judgement – allowing his daughter to visit Paris, she is immediately kidnapped to be sold into slavery. But clearly Liam's previous job was actually as James Bond since he brutally and efficiently proceeds to kill the villains and pretty much everyone else he talks to. The problem is that much of it is completely absurd. To pick one example, he talks his way into the evil lair by flashing a stolen French police badge. Despite the fact that he makes no attempt to speak, y'know, French. That's about the level of things…

Guy Pearce is a sleazy salesman in First Snow (***), a cynical type who believes nothing when a fortune teller predicts that he will die soon. However, the fortune teller is played with such class by JK Simmons that when other things start coming true Pearce gets into something of a panic. So, can you escape fate? Do you create your own fate? There's nothing much new in this neo-noir but it's very well acted and tautly directed.

Step Brothers (***) finds Will Ferrell in top form and manages to walk a very fine line in its suspension of disbelief. Perhaps the reason this rises above other recent Ferrell comedies (and there have been many) is possibly the presence of sidekick John C Reilly, whom he worked so well with in Talladega Nights. Whatever the reason, the idea of the two of them playing the weirdly naïve child-like grown-up step brothers just works, and they mine it for not inconsiderable laughs. A welcome departure from sports-themed comedies, this is reminiscent of early Farrelly Brothers work.

In The Perfect Witness (**) Wes Bentley is a creepy photographer who (after tracking him down) photographs a serial killer in action. He then attempts to blackmail the man into allowing him to make a documentary about his life and killings. It quickly becomes clear what the audience knows all along, that this is a Really Stupid Idea. It would be nice to think the film offered original insight but it really feels more like an exploitation quickie.

Man From Earth (**) comes from a script by the late legendary sci-fi writer Jerome Bixby. A small group are gathering to farewell a university colleague when he surprises them by announcing that he is in fact thousands of years old and can never die. The film follows the arguments and discussions that ensue and is both stimulating and intelligent. It does, however, reveal its low budget and though the cast is fine the proceedings feels like little more than a filmed stage play.