Essay 2. Draft

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 with fears that if he moved then he would be electrocuted. 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 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 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”, he 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 that 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. This was the way it seemed through the U.S army’s eyes.

Errol Morris also uses a revolutionary style of interviewing 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 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. Now 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. And in this way she is revealing what she and the other U.S army officers 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. With “Gilligan’s” face covered, it is as if the humanness in him is taken out. 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. Also, in both of the photographs “Gilligan” does not have real clothes on, only a blanket to keep him warm. 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 that really happened. The photographs of “Gilligan” show that he really was tortured and treated poorly.

This scene that depicted “Gilligan” shows how inhumanely the United States treated the suspected terrorists in the 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 if he moves, 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”.