By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Errol Morris
Country: united_states
Year: 2014
Running time: 103
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3281074/combined
Kyle says: “’We need to understand how we got to where we are.’ This fatuous comment by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is memorable only because subsequent Iraq history has made both the man and this dispiriting documentary a waste of its audience’s time. The weakest work in the collected oeuvres of the great Errol Morris, THE UNKNOWN KNOWN investigates Rumsfeld’s monstrous linguistic obfuscations and smarmy self-congratulatory justifications that tell us nothing we did not already know. The only tension to be found is between the voices of Rumsfeld and a clearly out-of-his-depth Morris, whose disbelieving (even stupid) questions and hectoring vocal tactics fail to penetrate the sublime solipsism of Rumsfeld. Occasionally Morris holds a shot on Rumsfeld for a few seconds longer than necessary, and the opaque visage of the war criminal becomes self-indicting. The interview segments are counterpointed with nature shots that further the incomprehensibility of what we are watching and listening to. The nastiest aspect of this enterprise is its possible use as a recruiting tool for certain young men in foreign lands, who will likely find a reason to give their lives to bring down the Great Satan they know as America. 1.5 cats”