7. The Paradox of Documentary

The documentary “The Unknown Known” by Errol Morris Errol Morris attempted to establish a personal link with us, the audience, to place emphasis on the conversation with Donald Rumsfeld and the themes of  “truth”, “known”, and “unknown” that occur throughout the entire film by employing personal camera tactics, utilizing real world news clips, articles, etc., and by utilizing dark ominous music.

Utilizing a personal camera style, Errol Morris attempts to establish connection with the audience by giving the documentary the feel as if the audience is participating in a conversation with Donald Rumsfeld. To this end, the camera is positioned as such that it appears as if Donald Rumsfeld is talking directly into the camera. This serves to cast a negative light on Donald Rumsfeld by highlighting his various gestures, facial expressions, and hesitations in his answering of various questions asked by the interviewer. Furthermore, Errol Morris brought a sense of skepticism by allowing the audience to hear the interviewer ask Donald Rumsfeld various questions with a sense of doubt present within the interviewer's tone of voice. This in combination with the themes of “truth”, “known”, and “unknown” result in the audience constantly questioning and doubting Donald Rumsfeld’s responses.

Donald Rumsfeld’s responses were subsequently placed in comparison to various scenes, and clips inserted by Errol Morris that depicted real world events, conferences, and conversations that Donald Rumsfeld actually had. One example of this was a news clip highlighting Baghdad in chaos which served to conflict with Donald Rumsfeld interpretation that Iraqi citizens welcomed American forces as a liberating force from the “feared” dictator. This tactic further causes the audience to doubt Donald Rumsfeld and to question whether he is actually telling the truth and/or trying to cover something up.

The music used throughout the film is consistently dramatic music specifically chosen to enhance the darkness of the film. After further investigation into the music employed through the documentary, I discovered the music was by composer Danny Elfman a master in dark, and ominous music. Understanding this, it becomes increasingly apparent the intent of the film may have been to simply create a theme of distrust. To this end, the documentary itself seemingly plays off of the public’s distrust of politicians and uses it to its advantage in order to subjectively cast Donald Rumsfeld in a negative light.

For these aforementioned reasons, the documentary rather than being objective is extremely biased in its casting of Donald Rumsfeld in a negative light. As documentary films are often used to explore an issue present in society and/or is used with the intention of uncovering the truth decoding the mystery surrounding an issue, the film causes me to question its classification as a documentary. I question how “true” and “credible” this film actually is in speaking about the reality of the situation it is exploring. As much as the film causes the audience to question the “truth” of Donald Rumsfeld it at the same time causes the audience to question the “truth” and “credibility” of the film itself.