Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Unknown Known, The
Collapse
X
Collapse
-
Unknown Known, The
Released by: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released on: July 2nd, 2014.
Director: Errol Morris
Cast: Various
Year: 2013
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Regardless of your political leanings and allegiances, you'd have to be a fool not to understand why US military action that took place during Donald Rumsfeld's tenure as Secretary Of Defense was, to be kind, controversial. While many on the far right continue to insist that his role in the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were the right moves in a post 9/11 world, the fact is that these operations caused a whole lot of death and destruction at the expense of the American taxpayer. Filmmaker Errol Morris, the same man who made The Fog Of War (which interviewed former Secretary Of Defense Robert McNamara) interviewed Rumsfeld extensively and then cut that newly shot footage in with pertinent archival clips and the result is the documentary film The Unknown Known.
The movie basically interviews Rumsfeld and Rumsfeld only - there are no political pundits hanging around offering sound bite sized snippets of wit nor are there any of the man's associates here to provide their take on things. Morris asks him about the earlier days of his political career, his work under the Presidents he served under before working with George W. Bush and it's here that the documentary will likely prove most interesting to anyone who has read this far. When asked about the justification for and repercussions of the more controversial aspects of this period in his life, Rumsfeld has always maintained a very astute public face. That continues here, the man is almost fanatical in his certainty, never cracking or letting on that maybe… just maybe… nothing was as black and white as he and his political allies made it out to be in the early 2000's.
So startling is his certainty through the talk here that he can and often does come across as a man who has convinced himself that his own lies (or, to be fair, mistakes) is in fact the truth. He offers no apologies, he seems to need no further evidence that those WMDs existed despite their absence in the grand scheme of things and he offers absolutely no remorse. Rumsfeld does not crack. His answers to Morris' questions, which do not mix words, are not only elusive but they're downright evasive. His ability to dodge offering any real answers is amazing in a way, but we see here a man so committed to keeping up appearances that you have to wonder if he's even capable of honesty or feeling any sort of remorse.
Interestingly enough, Morris lets him do it his way. While some will understandably lament the absence of a good sparring match between the two, the documentary doesn't go there and instead paints an absurd portrait of a man who offers no complicated personality traits or even any sort of hindsight as to the effectiveness of decisions he willingly made. Interestingly enough, Rumsfeld smiles almost the entire time the cameras are on him. His frequent contradictions wind up speaking volumes and Morris lets him do it, which winds up making this all the more interesting. What we wind up with is almost literally a self portrait of a man remarkable not for his strategies or commentary but for his inability to admit mistakes or, seemingly, to feel anything but self-righteous, sanctimonious satisfaction in his role in what history would seem to be proving a pretty epic political clusterfuck.
Quite honestly, it's all incredibly creepy.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The feature is presented in AVC encode 2.40.1 widescreen in 1080p high definition and like a lot of documentaries of this sort it is made up of newly shot interview footage and archival clips. Not surprisingly, the footage shot specifically for this disc looks great. It's clean, colorful and quite sharp without suffering from any artificial filtering or tinkering. Also not surprising is the fact that some of the archival clips, many taken from older news footage sources, doesn't look as good. That's the nature of the beast with presentations like this, but the good certainly outweighs the bad here and all in all the transfer is just fine.
The English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track on the disc actually has a lot more going on in terms of surround activity than you might guess. Dialogue comes primarily from the front and center of the mix, which works, but the score (courtesy of Danny Elfman) and some sound bites are well placed in the rears and front surround channels to create a surprisingly ambitious and enveloping mix. Optional subtitles are provided in English and Spanish.
The main extra on the disc is an audio commentary with director Errol Morris and if you've heard his commentary tracks before then you already know that he's a pretty interesting speaker. Though this track suffers from a few too many instances of dead air, when he gets 'in the zone' he doesn't mix words about his thoughts on Rumsfeld. While there are times where you wish he'd elaborate more on what it was like working on this project or what his intentions were, the vibe here is a decidedly political one. If you don't see things Morris' way you might take issue with that, if you do, you'll probably find yourself agreeing with most of what he says and taking interest in why he says it and how he backs it up even if the pacing issues make this drag in some spots.
The disc also includes the Third Annual Report Of The Secretaries of Defense which is a video document of a meeting from 1989 in which a strong of Defense Secretaries - Melvin Laird, Caspar Weinberger, Frank Carlucci, Robert McNamara, James Schlesinger and Donald Rumsfeld get together to discuss the issues that at the time were affecting US defense strategies. It's almost an hour long and in many ways fairly dry but it is interesting to see these man banter back and forth and to note what they agree and disagree on. A featurette, entitled appropriately enough A Conversation With Errol Morris, runs eight minutes and in many ways covers what you'd have expected the commentary to go over - here he talks about working with Rumsfeld, what he was trying to accomplish with this film and his thoughts on the finished product.
Rounding out the extras is a four part Op/Ed piece entitled The Certainty Of Donald Rumseld written by Errol Morris and appearing here as a text piece. It's an interesting read and allows the filmmaker to further expand on his thoughts on his subject. Some previews for a few other Anchor Bay titles are provided as are menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
The Unknown Known won't likely change your opinion of Donald Rumsfeld or what he was responsible for, in fact, if anything it'll likely reinforce it. If you guy into what he says, there's a lot more of that here but if, like many of us (and most of the people that this documentary will appeal to) you consider him a snake, a man living in denial, Morris' film goes a long way towards cementing the reasons for that. Either way, this is a very interesting documentary of a man who is and should remain a polarizing figure in the landscape of American politics and it's absolutely worth seeing if you have an interest in that or in world events.
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (271)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4149)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (385)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (298)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (497)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Zelda Williams
Cast: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Carla Gugino, Joe Chrest, Henry Eikenberry
Year: 2024
Purchase From Amazon
Lisa Frankenstein – Movie Review:
The feature-length directorial debut of Zelda Williams, 20214’s Lisa Frankenstein takes place in 1989 and follows a teenaged girl named Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) who, two years ago, lost her mother...-
Channel: Movies
04-03-2024, 03:40 PM -
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Gianfranco Giagni
Cast: Roland Wybenga, William Berger, Stéphane Audran
Year: 1988
Purchase From Amazon
Spider Labyrinth – Movie Review:
Professor Alan Whitmore (Roland Wybenga) is an American who works as a Professor of languages studies and has a fascination bordering on obsession with translating pre-Christian religious texts. He was also locked in a closet...-
Channel: Movies
04-03-2024, 03:37 PM -
-
Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Arizal
Cast: Barry Prima, Eva Arnaz, W.D. Mochtar
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
Special Silencers – Movie Review:
When director Arizal’s 1982 epic begins, we meet a man named Gumilar (W.D. Mochtar), a sinister dude who has constantly bloodshot eyes. He’s meeting with a man about some sort of business deal, but a flashback shows us how some time ago he killed...-
Channel: Movies
04-03-2024, 03:35 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Piero Regnoli
Cast: Walter Brandi, Lyla Rocco, Maria Giovannini, Alfredo Rizzo, Marisa Quattrini, Leonardo Botta
Year: 1960
Purchase From Amazon
The Playgirls And The Vampire – Movie Review:
Piero Regnoli’s 1960 goofy gothic horror, The Playgirls And The Vampire, revolves around a quintet of beautiful showgirls - Vera (Lyla Rocco), Katia (Maria Giovannini),...-
Channel: Movies
04-03-2024, 03:30 PM -
-
Released by: Unearthed Films
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Nacho Cerdà
Cast: Anastasia Hille, Karel Roden, Valentin Goshev
Year: 2006
Purchase From Amazon
The Abandoned – Movie Review:
Directed by Nacho Cerdà, who co-wrote with Richard Stanley and Karim Hussain, 2006's The Abandoned opens in Russia in 1966 where a poor family sits at the dinner table only to be interrupted when a large truck stops suddenly in front...-
Channel: Movies
03-28-2024, 04:29 PM -
-
Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: April 23rd, 2024.
Director: Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi
Cast: Stefano Sibaldi, Susan Hampshire, Dick Gregory
Year: 1971
Purchase From Amazon
Goodbye Uncle Tom – Movie Review:
In what has to be one of the most unexpected ‘special edition home video releases ‘of the year, Blue Underground brings to 4k UHD (and to a separate Blu-ray edition) both versions of the extremely controversial...-
Channel: Movies
03-28-2024, 04:23 PM -