Errol Morris’s film, The
Unknown Known, about the 2003 Iraq war showed Donald Rumsfeld as arrogant,
self-serving, evasive, ambiguous, word obsessive, and, often, untruthful. But
that was know before the film by journalists, most of the nation, and even Bush
administration neocons, who eventually booted Rumsfeld from his defense
department position. Morris, however, effectively solidified that image through
skillful use of Rumsfeld’s own words and existing news footage. For example,
- · Rumsfeld (mis-)speaks: Morris’s in-your-face interviews damaged Rumsfeld’s credibility. Rumsfeld, while trying to maintain his “trademark” stoicism, often denied making or reinterpreted statements extracted from his own memos and press conferences. For instance, Morris pointed out that Rumsfeld’s infamous “known unknowns” definition evolved from “things that we think we do not know, that we really do” to “things that we think we know, that we really don’t.” A befuddled Rumsfeld never explained that reversal. But Morris’s interview tactics hardly seemed those of an objective journalist. He was as much a participant of the interviews as Rumsfeld.
- · Photography records reality: A key element of this film was Morris’s adept juxtaposing of Rumsfeld’s on-camera statements with news footage that contradicted those statements. For example, news clips showing Baghdad in chaos invalidated Rumsfeld’s claim that Iraq’s populace embraced the invading Americans as liberators. Private photographs taken by prison guards discredited Rumsfeld’s matter-of-fact stance on prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. Those revelations were potent forces in changing the dynamics of American’s attitude of about the Iraq invasion. (The latter confirms Susan Sontag’s observation that photographs, greatly facilitated by new technologies, are a powerful force in moving public opinion.)
- · Music underscores emotion: Finally, Morris’s ace in the hole to manipulate emotion during the news footage scenes was the music of Danny Elfman, composer of dark, mysterious scores for Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and other films. This music, unusual for a documentary, heightened the horror, despair, and human tragedy of the Iraq conflict.
Morris’s The Unknown
Known was a fascinating character study of Donald Rumsfeld. What else did I
learn from the film? Not much. Journalists had already documented the contrived
lead-up to and botched execution of the Iraq invasion. Perhaps that history
might temper present-day, saber-rattling neocons advocating military action
against Iran—but maybe not.
*The quoted title statement is that of Morris from his New
York Times article, “The Certainty of Donald Rumsfeld.”
What I find very interesting about Errol Morris' documentary was that he kept trying to direct Donald Rumsfeld to act a specific way. Morris kept pushing Rumsfeld to realize or admit some of his actions were corrupt in some way, but Rumsfeld refused to say anything that aligned with Morris' idea. In typical documentary films, characters of the film are not supposed to be forced into anything. Instead, they are supposed to account their story or point of view. Can this film be declared a documentary then? I believe it doesn't classify as a documentary because of the three things you mentioned above. Morris had to add a lot of post production to this film with the music, juxtaposed clips, and constant iteration of definitions to drive his point of corruption within Donald Rumsfeld's story.
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