Stephanie McQuillan
Mr. Harmon
English 101
October 11, 2011
Inside of the morally ambiguous prison, Abu Ghraib, many suspected terrorists were tortured at the hands of the United States Army. The torturous techniques at this prison included mental as well as physical torture. Photographs documenting this torture were uncovered in 2004, and Errol Morris used these photographs to try to uncover the truth about what happened there in his documentary “Standard Operating Procedure”. A scene that signifies the torture that these prisoners received included a man named “Gilligan”, who was forced to hold a box while wires were attached to him. He thought these wires would electrocute him if he moved, and so he was forced to stand still for hours at a time. It turned out that these wires were not attached to anything, but he did not know that. Through the scene’s use of reenactment, Interreton style interviews, and photographs of “Gilligan” this scene follows the larger message of the documentary, which was to reveal and expose what really happened at Abu Ghraib.
One of Errol Morris’ signature techniques of documentary filmmaking is his use of reenactment. Through reenactment he portrays the people and what happened in a very anonymous and unidentified way. In fact, “Gilligan” is a name the army officials gave him when he came to the prison. The army did not know his real name, which adds to the anonymous nature “Gilligan” portrayed. In this scene, Morris shows the box and the feet of “Gilligan”, and his arms attached to the wires. Morris fails to show his face and in this way he keeps “Gilligan” anonymous. With this portrayal of “Gilligan”, it seems as if he is not a “real” person. Because “Gilligan” was not given a face during the reenactment of what really happened, it is as if he is not a person with real dignity. “Gilligan” was housed in that prison because he was suspected of killing two U.S agents, so some could justify that he deserved the torture that he received. But, “Gilligan” was still a real person with feelings who most likely felt scared and desperate when he was being tortured. Portraying “Gilligan” without a face made him seem like he was not a real person, and so in this way it is somehow justifiable to treat him poorly.
Errol Morris also uses a revolutionary style of interviewing that he invented called the Interrotron. This state of the art machine has a head right next to the lens of the camera. This makes it seem like the person being interviewed is actually talking to the audience. It is in the human nature and the nature of technology to look off to the side when talking to someone or being interviewed. People rarely look directly into the camera. Morris’ goal with this machine was to achieve the first person by taking out the third party nature of an interview (Eye Contact). Through Errol Morris’ use of the Interrotron, it is as if the people who are being interviewed are directly addressing what the army did. Specifically in this scene, the woman being interviewed was actually there while “Gilligan” was being tortured. In this documentary, the woman is directly addressing what happened to “Gilligan”. She tells the story of how he was forced to stand on top of a box for hours with fears of being electrocuted by wires that were attached to his hand. The woman makes direct eye contact with the audience while doing this. She is not trying to cover up what the army did. In fact, she is doing just the opposite by openly talking about what the army did to “Gilligan”.
Specifically in this scene, there are two photographs of “Gilligan”, both of which depict him with a bag over his head so the viewer cannot see his face. One of the photographs shows “Gilligan” lying over a railing, as if he is unconscious or not even alive. The other photograph in this scene shows “Gilligan” sitting on a chair, again with a bag over his head so the viewer cannot see his face, holding a box. With “Gilligan’s” face covered, it is as if the humanness in him is taken out. Again, it is as if “Gilligan” does not have enough dignity to be presented without a bag over his head. The army must see him as sub-human and so putting a bag over his head could be considered acceptable. Also, in both of the photographs “Gilligan” does not have real clothes on, only a blanket to keep him warm. This also shows that the army did not have enough respect for him to cloth him. Instead, they put “Gilligan” to shame by making him walk around naked. According to Susan Sontag on her essay about photography, when something is photographed it is as if it was proven (Sontag). It is harder to doubt if something happened or not if there is a photograph to prove it. In the photographs that show “Gilligan”, no one can deny that “Gilligan” and the rest of the prisoners were not tortured. The photographs provide hard evidence that “Gilligan” was treated and thought of as less than human. When someone sees the photographs of “Gilligan”, they can no longer deny the torture that he endured, and what was a rumor becomes reality. The photographs of “Gilligan” show that he really was tortured and treated poorly.
This scene that depicted “Gilligan” shows the larger depiction of the documentary on how inhumanely the United States treated the suspected terrorists in their prison. By forcing “Gilligan” to stand for hours at a time on a box and telling him that if he moves he will be electrocuted, the U.S army mentally and emotionally tortured him. “Gilligan” was never beaten or touched, but clearly he was treated in a less than humane way. “Gilligan” was only one example of how poorly the United States treated the prisoners from Abu Ghraib. Many prisoners at the prison received physical abuse as well as emotional/mental abuse. Some prisoners were beaten so badly that they actually died because of their injuries. It is also likely that their was some information and footage that was too disturbing to put into the documentary “Standard Operating Procedure”, so the audience may not even know the whole story of what went on there. “Gilligan” was one of the many suspected terrorists that was tortured by the United States Army, but through his scene and the style of the scene it is revealed that the United States Army did indeed commit torturous crimes against many other suspected terrorists as well as “Gilligan”.
