NEW YORK -- The old saying claims a picture is worth a thousand words. But in his new documentary Standard Operating Procedure, Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris argues that a thousand words aren't always enough.

This is particularly true when the picture in question happens to be one of the photographs taken at Abu Ghraib, the U.S. military prison in Iraq where the abuse and humiliation of detainees, documented in snapshots taken by soldiers, resulted in worldwide anger and disgust.

A lot of that anger was specifically directed at the Americans who appeared in the photos, laughing while holding leashes attached to dog collars around the necks of prisoners or flashing a jolly thumbs-up sign while crouching above the corpse of a suspected terrorist.

But in Standard Operating Procedure,which opens Friday, Morris takes a closer look at the photos in the hopes of finding out why, exactly, they even existed.

HIS CURIOSITY

''It was my curiosity about the Abu Ghraib photographs that was the initial inspiration for the movie -- the fact that they had been so widely seen by millions of people, yet we knew so very little about them, the people who took them and the circumstances under which they were taken,'' Morris says during a daylong session of interviews in a Manhattan hotel in April.

''The photos also very quickly became politicized,'' he says. ``The left had their version of the story, and the right had their version. You can argue that it comes down to policy or it comes down to the individual initiative of the solder. But I wanted to be careful not to add to all the partisan white noise. And the only way to do that, of course, is to talk to the people who were there.''

Using an investigative approach similar to that of The Thin Blue Line -- his 1988 documentary about the shooting death of a Texas police officer that resulted in the exoneration of a Death Row inmate who had been unjustly convicted of the crime -- Morris uses interviews with the female soldiers in the photos, their commanding officers and the lawyers who prosecuted them to take the viewer back to the precise moment when the cameras flashed.

And what he uncovers is a much more complex story than the images suggested, revealing everything from the personal relationships between the women and the superiors who ordered them to strike the poses seen round the world to the motivation behind some of the pictures, which were not intended as grotesque trophies but as documentation of human rights violations.

The interviews also reveal that some of the soldiers, such as Lynndie England, the infamous leash-holder, feel little regret about the photos because they stand firm to this day that they were just following orders -- and had their lives ruined for doing so.

''I'm not saying these guys were all lily-white victims,'' says Morris, who had to wait until England finished her three-year sentence for conspiracy, maltreating detainees and committing an indecent act in a military prison before interviewing her for the film. ``But in the film we learn that the photograph with Lynndie and the leash was orchestrated by Charles Graner [her superior officer, currently serving a 10-year sentence] and that [another soldier] was in the photograph but later cropped out. And one thing the movie doesn't tell us -- it can't tell you everything, because there is such an overwhelming amount of information about this subject -- is that the leash was standard operating procedure and approved by the medics at Abu Ghraib.''

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@