This isn't necessarily an "official trilogy" demarcated by director
Errol Morris, but three of his more recent documentaries do make a pretty neat little, wartime-themed tried of films: 2003's
The Fog of War, 2008's
Standard Operating Procedure, and 2013's
The Unknown Known. Strictly speaking, they didn't all come out in a perfect row, with his curio
Tabloid breaking up the run in 2010. But never the less, these three films hang together pretty well, with
Unknown Known playing like almost a sequel to
Fog Of War and
Donald Rumsfeld, the focus of
Unknown Known, having cast such a looming shadow over the players of
Standard Operating Procedure. In fact, you could get even more pedantic about it if you wanted to, and instead of calling these Morris's war film trilogy, you could call them his United States Secretary of Defense trilogy.
Update 11/21/17 - 11/15/23: Sony has done it! They've given us
The Fog of War on blu-ray, making this entire trilogy now available in HD.
We begin with
The Fog Of War, where we see Morris continue in the direction he'd started off with in
Mr. Death and developed in
First Person: basing an entire documentary around a single interview. We see glimpses of archival footage, vintage photos and snippets of important audio recordings, but 99% of this film is just former Secretary of Defense
Robert S. McNamara talking to the camera - or, for those of us in the know,
The Interrotron. The Interrotron is Morris's unique invention that allows interviewees to look directly into the camera and look the interviewer (Morris) square in the eye at the same time. It hides the camera directly behind and filming through a screen that projects Morris's face, who is being film by a second camera hidden behind a another screen of the interviewee's face. I want one, and it allows for a unique style of filming interviews where the subject can feel completely natural in a fluid conversation while consistently looking into the camera.
But what's important here isn't the technology, but the humanity. This is a fascinating look into the man who saw us through both the Cuban Missile Crisis and The Vietnam War. McNamara is famous for having come from the world of business rather than the military, and had a bit of a reputation as being a number cruncher rather than a traditional strategist. One thing this documentary does is use recordings that had just been released to challenge the long-standing historic theory that McNamara had pushed president Johnson to throw hard into the Vietnam conflict. In fact, it seems he had been on the side of pulling out, but was unable to convince the administration.
So, you know, that's interesting I guess. But I'm no history buff or politics junkie. What makes a great documentary is the ability to fascinate audiences regardless of whether the viewer has a preexisting interest in the subject matter. For instance, I've very into Hip-Hop music, and I've watched and enjoyed some pretty mediocre documentaries, just because they were giving me information I wanted to know and insight into artists I was a particular fan of. But I wouldn't recommend them to a country/ western fan; they'd be crawling up the walls twenty minutes in. But Morris is one of the great documentary makers who will rivet anyone. From the
Phillip Glass score, to the editing and just the masterful way Morris mines his interviewees, this is just a great film. Hell, it won the Academy Award that year.
And that's what makes it all the more disappointing that The Fog of War has never been released in HD. Sony Pictures Classics released it as a new release DVD in 2004, and it was issued in nearly identical editions in other regions all around the same time.
But that's been it. No updated transfers, no Criterion commentaries, no blu-rays. We've still just got the original DVDs. Fortunately, at least, there's nothing wrong with those. And now in 2023, they've updated it to a sleek new, blu-ray release. Let's have a look.
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Sony's 2004 DVD top; Sony's 2023 BD bottom.
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Sony's DVD presents
The Fog Of War in a nice, anamorphic 1.78:1,
although things get a tiny bit fuzzy in the overscan edges. There's no
interlacing or other issues. Sony's blu is also in 1.78:1 (despite
saying 1.85:1 on the back of the case) but clears up the overscan
edges. The framing and everything is basically the same, except it
fixes a little horizontal inch, resulting in a sliver extra picture
along the top. But the most pertinent fact, of course, is that it's in HD. Small detail that was once covered in fuzz is now focused and lifelike. Embedded in this page, the differences may seem slim; but click through to the full size caps and look at, for instance, McNamara's face in the first set of shots, and it's an impressive gain. Naturally, some of the lower quality vintage footage, like in that last set of shots, doesn't benefit as much as Morris's crisp new footage, but even the old material is a smidgen clearer, thanks to the improved compression.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is nice and clear, with additional French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and English HoH subtitles. The blu-ray bumps it up to lossless DTS-HD, adds a Spanish dub 2.0 mix, and drops the French, Japanese and Portuguese subtitles, but critically keeps the English ones (as well as the Spanish).
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| Sony's 2004 DVD top; Sony's 2023 BD bottom. |
This isn't exactly a "special edition," but there is some good bonus
stuff to be found on both discs, which have roughly the same extras. Primarily, what we get are the deleted scenes. But
there's almost 40 minutes worth of deleted scenes; it's practically a
sequel, though some of the additional
anecdotes are a little underwhelming and you can see why they were cut.
But there's still some really good stuff there. Unfortunately, the DVD's deleted scenes are non-anamorphic and
heavily interlaced, as you can see above. The BD's scenes are still non-anamorphic, but they fixed the interlacing (except in some of the archive footage), so that's a plus. Also,
The Fog Of War
is structured in a way that break it up into 11 chapters, labeled as
lessons. Well, apparently that was all Morris's invention, and McNamara
wants us to know those aren't his. So he came up with his own ten life
lessons, which is basically just a text-only extra, but McNamara does
provide a very brief audio introduction. And there's the trailer. The DVD also threw in two
TV spots, some bonus trailers and an insert advertising a companion book
and teacher's guide for the film that the new blu doesn't bother with.
Next up is 2008's
Standard Operating Procedure, Morris
documentary on the infamous photographs of prisoner abuse from Abu
Ghraib. There were several documentaries out about the huge Abu Ghraib
scandal around that time, including
Alex Gibney's
Taxi To the Dark Side and the HBO documentary
Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib, which even interview a couple of the same people. They're all good. Certainly
Taxi is very engaging and informative. But none really cross the line to a higher art like
SOP.
Taxi is a film you should definitely see, and
Ghosts is a film worth checking out if you're interested enough in the subject matter. But
SOP is the only one that really belongs in the film lover's collection.
Now, if you've been following Morris, including his articles and books,
you could probably guess that Morris is particularly interested in the
photographs and what truths they show and which they obscure. That, and
it really winds up delving into the day to day reality of being in that
environment and looking at the world outward from the lived experience
of the "bad apples."
SOP does go there to some degree, but this
isn't political expose about who knew what all the way up the chain.
That's addressed, and it's certainly shocking at the end when you see
which photos were eventually deemed by the military as criminal and
which were "standard operating procedure." But
SOP really seeks a
deeper understanding of those moments in the photographs and to
question what they tell us beyond our initial impressions.
For the record, this one isn't a single interview documentary. It
interviews many people, from the most infamous guards, their peers,
those who were supposed to be in charge, and contractors who were also
on-site. Conflicting details are allowed to counterpoint each other.
The only conspicuously absent players are one of the key "bad apples"
who was still in military prison, the detainees themselves (although
Morris talks about how hard he tried to find them in the special
features), and Donald Rumsfeld... which might hint at why we would later
get
The Unknown Known. And on a more technical level,
SOP features some amazing, ultra-high speed photography and an elegant score by
Danny Elfman.
Like
The Fog Of War, Sony Pictures Classics released
Standard Operating Procedure
as a new release in most regions around the world, and the film has
never since been revisited on disc. Fortunately, however, by 2009,
blu-rays were a thing, so this time we got the film in HD. In fact,
this was the time when Sony was really trying to push blu-rays, so they
wound up including a bunch of additional, exclusive material to the BD
that they left off the DVD copies. So if, like me, you weren't buying
blu-rays yet in 2009, this is a serious one to consider going back for
and double-dipping.
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| 2009 Sony US DVD top; 2009 Sony US blu-ray bottom. |
As a concurrent, dual release, naturally the DVD and blu-ray feature the
same master. The very wide 2.39:1 framing is identical, the brightness
levels and colors are the same, etc. And thankfully, neither is
interlaced or otherwise troubled. The difference between them is simply
the fundamental difference between an SD and HD release. But yes, that
HD does make a difference. Look at the full-size shots and you'll see
the blu is noticeably sharper and clearer. There's an inescapable
softness when you get in close to the DVD, so you'll appreciate the blu
on an large screen set. There is so much extra footage packed onto the
disc, and it's an early blu-ray release, so it was a little bit of a
worry that the blu might be overly compressed and not much of an upgrade
on the DVD. But no, it's a very clean, genuine boost to high def.
Both releases feature the same audio options: a strong 5.1 mix, with
French and Portuguese dubs also in 5.1. The only difference being that
the blu is able to deliver them in TrueHD. Both discs also include a
whole ton, but slightly different, subtitle options. I'll bold the ones
that are unique to each disc. The DVD has English,
English subs for the commentary, French, Portuguese, Portuguese subs for the commentary, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Thai, while the blu has English,
English SDH, German,
German subs for the commentary, French, Portuguese, Portuguese subs for the commentary, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Thai and
Turkish. I'm not sure if that's going to be of huge importance to anyone, but it's an interesting little detail.
The much more noteworthy distinctions lie in the special features. The
DVD isn't bad, it gives you some good stuff including another insightful
commentary by Errol Morris and almost half an hour of deleted scenes.
They also throw in the trailer, a couple bonus trailers, and an annoying
commercial for blu-rays on start-up. The blu includes all of that
(even the annoying commercial on start-up, unfortunately), but also has a
whole lot more. Besides the deleted scenes from the DVD, there is also
almost two hours of "additional interviews," which basically just
amount to a metric ton more deleted scenes. A few scenes to repeat, but
only a few minutes worth. 98% of it is all new material, including
some very compelling and dramatic stuff that was surprisingly left out
of the feature film itself, and even one or two interviews with people
not used in the film at all! Then you've got two festival Q&As with
Errol Morris (one also with his producer), which add up to another 45
minutes. They're pretty distinct, and only repeat a little bit,
although they do cover some ground mentioned in the commentary as well.
And finally, there's a 45 minute panel discussion... If you're keeping
track, that's like 4+ hours of bonus content, not counting the
commentary, packed onto one disc, with a whole bunch of language options
on there, too - you can see why I was concerned that it might be a
compressed nightmare. Anyway, the panel was recorded at the Berlin Film
Festival, where a small, fairly random bunch of journalists and
politicians discuss the politics addressed in the film. It's a bit
superfluous, and rarely reaches the level I'd genuinely consider an
"important" discussion, so it's pretty skippable unless you're a
die-hard fan hungry for every drop of content. But everything else?
Including all those deleted scenes and extended interviews? Those are
essential viewing. So, unfortunately, the DVD really isn't good enough.
And finally, we end with
The Unknown Known. It took him a while,
but he finally got Rumsfeld in the hot seat. Morris described
interviewing Rumsfeld as "one of the strangest things I've ever done,
certainly one of the strangest interviews I've ever done," which is
really saying something when you remember films like
Vernon, Florida. Like
The Fog Of War,
this is a single-interview documentary, and to a limited degree, I
might concede that this is a slightly misguided attempt to repeat the
success of
Fog. It didn't win him his second Academy Award, even
though it does feel a little like it's trying to recapture the same
magic. But it certainly stands up as its own film, more than worth
watching on its own terms: a unique perspective of an outlandish series
of events.
After all, even though they might've shared the same job title, Rumsfeld
is a very different man than McNamara. He's slippery, and you only
have to drop by the film's Amazon page to read plenty of annoyed
viewers' frustrated reactions to Morris failing to nail him down. But
if you're prepared to read just a little below the barest surface-level
of the exchange, it's a fascinating portrait. "Ask yourself, what he's
saying here," Morris says in the audio commentary, "is he lying?
Confused? Self
deceived? It's at the heart of this movie; that very question." If
you're just looking for a documentary to point a finger and nail
Rumsfeld to the wall, well, you should've known by now that Morris
really isn't that kind of filmmaker. He certainly challenges Rumsfeld
again and again, but he never falls for the false satisfaction of quick
and easy answers. His subjects are real people and his films are real
art, which is why
The Unknown Known is more than just a failed replica of
Fog.
Morris was no longer making films with Sony by this point, and this one
was actually produced by The Weinstein Company (whoa, I felt my traffic
rise just typing that name), and surprisingly enough, the home video
release wound up falling to Anchor Bay. They gave it separate DVD and
blu-ray releases in 2014. And unlike
SOP, we're back to the
traditional method of having matching extras on both versions, so you
only need the blu-ray instead of the DVD if you want the HD transfer.
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| 2014 Anchor Bay US DVD top; 2014 Anchor Bay US blu-ray bottom. |
Once again, the film is framed at 2.39:1. In 2014, it would be pretty shocking (although
not completely unheard of!)
if the DVD was non-anamorphic or interlaced or anything, and thankfully
everything's fine. Get in close, and naturally the DVD is softer and
tiny detail is smudged compared to the crisper, more satisfying HD
blu-ray. Both both are perfectly up to snuff, first class transfers for
their respective formats.
And both discs feature a robust 5.1 track, in DTS-HD on the blu, plus optional English HOH and Spanish subs.
If you're still not convinced that
Unknown Known is something
more dramatic and compelling than a quick political puff piece, just
listen to the commentary track, where Morris gets pulled right back into
the arguments, becoming snarkier and more sarcastic than I've ever
heard in an audio commentary. I'm a fan of this film, so I don't
appreciate people selling it short, but I'll concede that the film with
the commentary on might be a more rewarding experience than the film
with the commentary off. I'm not sure I've ever felt that way about a
film I've owned before.
Besides the commentary, there's a brief on-camera interview with Morris,
which works as a nice introduction to the commentary, and an hour-long
television piece:
The Third Annual Report Of the Secretaries of Defense
from 1989. It's a great historical document, and great to finally see
McNamara and Rumsfeld in the same room (as well as five others who've
held that position) after this trilogy; but it's a pretty dry viewing
experience if you're here as a film fan rather than a politico. There's
also a text-only article by Morris, which contains some interviews; but
it's asking a lot to have viewer read pages and pages of on-screen text
off the disc... this should've been a booklet, but I guess that
would've been too costly. Unfortunately, there's no trailer, except for
a couple of random bonus trailers.
So the good news is
two all three of these three films already have pretty ideal releases. And the
Standard Operating Procedure
blu was released in the early days when pictures like this were
over-produced, so you can get a copy super cheap if you don't already
have it. It was a very painless double-dip for me. Not that that wraps up Errol's catalog on blu. We're still in desperate need of
Mr. Death,
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control,
American Dharma,
The B-side,
Wormwood,
My Psychedelic Love Story and his latest,
The Pigeon Tunnel. I'd also love a collection of his short films that he's made for
The New Yorker, etc. Some of those are seriously calling out for a Criterion re-visitation, with upgraded
transfers and some retrospective insight from Morris all these years
later. I love it that totally bonkers, under the radar craziness like
Demon Wind
is getting glorious 4k restorations; but at the same time, it's crazy
how the major studio catalog and even some of our most important films
are getting ignored, by the labels and fans alike. Come on, guys, it
can't all be cult horror and tent-poles 24/7.
