The Unknown Known

Last updated

The Unknown Known
The Unknown Known poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Errol Morris
Written byErrol Morris
Produced byRobert Fernandez
Amanda Branson Gill
Errol Morris
Starring Donald Rumsfeld
Errol Morris
Cinematography Robert Chappell
Edited bySteven Hathaway
Music by Danny Elfman
Production
companies
History Films
Moxie Pictures
Participant Media
Distributed by Radius-TWC
Release dates
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$301,604 [1]

The Unknown Known (also known as The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld) is a 2013 American documentary film about the political career of former U.S. Secretary of Defense and congressman Donald Rumsfeld, directed by Academy Award winning documentarian and filmmaker Errol Morris. It is a summary of 33 hours of interviews that Morris conducted with Rumsfeld over eleven separate sessions during visits to Newton, Massachusetts. The film was released on April 4, 2014, by Radius-TWC, and is dedicated to the memory of Roger Ebert.

Contents

Synopsis

The major portion of the film is spent addressing excerpts from the countless memos, nicknamed "Yellow Perils" by his first Pentagon staff and "Snowflakes" by his second, that Rumsfeld wrote during his time as a congressman and advisor to four different presidents, twice as United States Secretary of Defense. [2] [3] It also focuses on a response Rumsfeld gave to a question at a U.S. Department of Defense news briefing on February 12, 2002, about the lack of evidence linking the government of Iraq with the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups. The content of the memos are varied, covering everything from the aftermath of Watergate, to the torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, to the definition of the word "terrorism". Morris returns to the motif of snowflakes swirling within a globe throughout the documentary as he discusses the memos with Rumsfeld, the contents of which the Defense Secretary allowed him limited access to while preparing the film, and several of which Rumsfeld reads aloud on camera. [3] [4]

At the beginning of the film, Rumsfeld argues that a major purpose of the Department of Defense is to evaluate "unknown knowns", or "the things you think you know, that it turns out you did not", to anticipate hostile actions before they take place. Illustrating his point, Rumsfeld suggests that the failure of the United States to anticipate the attack on Pearl Harbor was a failure of imagination. [2]

Rumsfeld during a Pentagon news briefing. US Navy 031002-F-2828D-227 Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld responds to a reporter's question during a Pentagon press briefing.jpg
Rumsfeld during a Pentagon news briefing.

As the interviews proceed, several times Morris attempts to point out things that Rumsfeld says which he thinks contradict either fact or Rumsfeld's own past statements, but, as noted in several reviews of the film, [3] [5] [6] Rumsfeld does not always directly acknowledge what Morris is referring to or engage in deeper discourse, and at times he deflects the points raised. When Morris asks Rumsfeld about lessons he learned from the Vietnam War, however, Rumsfeld straightforwardly states: "Some things work out, some things don't. That didn't." Rumsfeld also expresses good-natured surprise at the recognition of a list of torture techniques—including hooding, stress positions, and nudity—that he personally approved for use on Guantánamo detainees, stating: "Good grief! That’s a pile of stuff!" [3] In follow up, Morris questions Rumsfeld about the so-called "Torture Memos" describing enhanced interrogation techniques. When Rumsfeld indicates that he never read them, Morris responds in disbelief: "Really?" [7] When asked if the Iraq War was a mistake, Rumsfeld replies: "I guess time will tell." [6]

In the penultimate scene of the film, Morris questions Rumsfeld again about "unknown knowns", and Rumsfeld inverts the definition given earlier, defining them as: "things that you know, that you don't know you know". Morris is quick to point out the incongruity, and Rumsfeld acknowledges it when shown his original memo, but he asserts that he thinks he misdefined the term when he wrote the memo. [2] [4] As the film closes, Morris asks Rumsfeld why he agreed to the interviews, and Rumsfeld responds: "That is a vicious question. I'll be darned if I know." [2]

Cast

Release

The Unknown Known was screened in the main competition section at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, and premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 29, 2013. [8] [9] [10] [11] [2]

Critical reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 106 reviews, with an average score of 6.8/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Viewers hoping to see Donald Rumsfeld admit making mistakes in public office may find The Unknown Known frustrating – but no less fascinating." [12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [13]

David Denby of The New Yorker wrote: "If Morris doesn’t quite nail Rumsfeld, his questions lead the Secretary to nail himself. You watch him obfuscate, fudge the issue of torture, smirk about George H. W. Bush (whom he doesn’t like), and offer dull commonplaces when impassioned clarity is called for." [14] Mary Corliss of Time wrote: "Morris's movie is a cat-and-mouse game, and Rumsfeld is the cat, virtually licking his chops as he toys with, and then devours, another rival." [15] Colin Colvert of the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote: "Morris is admirably evenhanded, never demonizing his subject, but giving him enough rope to hang himself. Rumsfeld, cool and bemused, refuses to knot the noose." [16]

Comparisons to The Fog of War

Reviews have compared the film to Morris's Academy Award-winning predecessor, The Fog of War (2003), a similar interview of Robert McNamara, the longest serving U.S. Secretary of Defense. Robert McNamara at a cabinet meeting, 22 Nov 1967.jpg
Reviews have compared the film to Morris's Academy Award-winning predecessor, The Fog of War (2003), a similar interview of Robert McNamara, the longest serving U.S. Secretary of Defense.

Several reviews of The Unknown Known compared it to Morris's Academy Award-winning predecessor The Fog of War (2003), with the follow-up being described as a "spiritual sequel". [17] [18] [19] The earlier documentary is about Robert McNamara, the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of Defense (Rumsfeld is the second-longest serving). Both films consist largely of interviews with former Defense Secretary octogenarians who were dismissed prematurely from their posts, and who discuss their roles as the voice of some of the most unpopular wars in recent American history—Vietnam for McNamara, and Iraq for Rumsfeld. [2] [7]

At one point during discussions about doing interviews and making a film, Morris asked Rumsfeld if he had seen The Fog of War, to which Rumsfeld responded: "I hate it [...] Because that man had nothing to apologize for". [20]

Morris has been resistant to comparisons between the two films, stating: "You can’t call this 'The Fog of War 2'. I can’t imagine two individuals more unalike." [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Rumsfeld</span> American politician and diplomat (1932–2021)

Donald Henry Rumsfeld was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as secretary of defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He was both the youngest and the oldest secretary of defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a four-term U.S. Congressman from Illinois (1963–1969), director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (1969–1970), counselor to the president (1969–1973), the U.S. Representative to NATO (1973–1974), and the White House Chief of Staff (1974–1975). Between his terms as secretary of defense, he served as the CEO and chairman of several companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Errol Morris</span> American film director (born 1948)

Errol Mark Morris is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of their subjects, and the invention of the Interrotron. In 2003, his The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. His film The Thin Blue Line placed fifth on a Sight & Sound poll of the greatest documentaries ever made. Morris is known for making films about unusual subjects; Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of an animal trainer, a topiary gardener, a robot scientist, and a naked mole-rat specialist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Danner</span> American writer, journalist, and educator

Mark David Danner is an American writer, journalist, and educator. He is a former staff writer for The New Yorker and frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. Danner specializes in U.S. foreign affairs, war and politics, and has written books and articles on Haiti, Central America, the former Yugoslavia, and the Middle East, as well as on American politics, covering every presidential election since 2000. In 1999, he was named a MacArthur Fellow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janis Karpinski</span> Retired United States Army officer (born 1953)

Janis Leigh Karpinski is a retired career officer in the United States Army Reserve. She is notable for having commanded the forces that operated Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, at the time of the scandal related to torture and prisoner abuse. She commanded three prisons in Iraq and the forces that ran them. Her education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and secondary education from Kean College, a Master of Arts degree in aviation management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and a Master of Arts in strategic studies from the United States Army War College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse</span> 2004 American military scandal

During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These abuses included physical abuse, sexual humiliation, physical and psychological torture, and rape, as well as the killing of Manadel al-Jamadi and the desecration of his body. The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs by CBS News in April 2004, causing shock and outrage and receiving widespread condemnation within the United States and internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohammed al-Qahtani</span> Saudi Arabian Guantanamo detainee

Mohammed Mani Ahmad al-Qahtani is a Saudi citizen who was detained as an al-Qaeda operative for 20 years in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba. Qahtani allegedly tried to enter the United States to take part in the September 11 attacks as the 20th hijacker and was due to be onboard United Airlines Flight 93 along with the four other hijackers. He was refused entry due to suspicions that he was trying to illegally immigrate. He was later captured in Afghanistan in the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohamedou Ould Slahi</span> Mauritanian author and former Guantanamo Bay detainee

Mohamedou Ould Slahi is a Mauritanian engineer who was detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp without charge from 2002 until his release on October 17, 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">There are unknown unknowns</span> Saying associated with the US invasion of Iraq

"There are unknown unknowns" is a phrase from a response United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave to a question at a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) news briefing on February 12, 2002, about the lack of evidence linking the government of Iraq with the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups. Rumsfeld stated:

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones.

<i>The Fog of War</i> 2003 American documentary film by Errol Morris

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara is a 2003 American documentary film about the life and times of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, illustrating his observations of the nature of modern warfare. It was directed by Errol Morris and features an original score by Philip Glass. The title derives from the military concept of the "fog of war", which refers to the difficulty of making decisions in the midst of conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Yoo</span> American attorney and former government official (born 1967)

John Choon Yoo is a South Korean-born American legal scholar and former government official who serves as the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Yoo became known for his legal opinions concerning executive power, warrantless wiretapping, and the Geneva Conventions while serving in the George W. Bush administration, during which he was the author of the controversial "Torture Memos" in the War on Terror.

Extrajudicial prisoners of the United States, in the context of the early twenty-first century War on Terrorism, refers to foreign nationals the United States detains outside of the legal process required within United States legal jurisdiction. In this context, the U.S. government is maintaining torture centers, called black sites, operated by both known and secret intelligence agencies. Such black sites were later confirmed by reports from journalists, investigations, and from men who had been imprisoned and tortured there, and later released after being tortured until the CIA was comfortable they had done nothing wrong, and had nothing to hide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Provance</span>

Samuel Provance is a former U.S. Army military intelligence sergeant, known for disobeying an order from his commanders in the 302nd Military Intelligence Battalion by discussing with the media his experiences at the Abu Ghraib Prison, where he was assigned from September 2003 to February 2004. After being disciplined for his actions, he eventually brought his case to the United States Government in February 2006, resulting in a congressional subpoena of the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The main points of his testimony are that military intelligence soldiers and contracted civilian interrogators had abused detainees, that they directed the military police to abuse detainees, the extent of this knowledge at the prison, and the subsequent cover-up of these practices when investigated.

<i>State of Denial</i> 2006 nonfiction book by Bob Woodward

State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III (ISBN 0-7432-7223-4) is a 2006 book by Bob Woodward that examines how the George W. Bush administration managed the Iraq War after the 2003 invasion. It follows Woodward's previous books on the Bush administration, Bush at War and Plan of Attack. Based on interviews with a number of people in the Bush administration, the book makes a number of allegations about the administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William J. Haynes II</span> American lawyer and politician

William James "Jim" Haynes II is an American lawyer and was General Counsel of the Department of Defense during much of 43rd President George W. Bush's administration and his war on terror. Haynes resigned as general counsel effective March 2008.

"Enhanced interrogation techniques" or "enhanced interrogation" was a program of systematic torture of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and various components of the U.S. Armed Forces at remote sites around the world—including Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Bucharest, and Guantanamo Bay—authorized by officials of the George W. Bush administration. Methods used included beating, binding in contorted stress positions, hooding, subjection to deafening noise, sleep disruption, sleep deprivation to the point of hallucination, deprivation of food, drink, and medical care for wounds, as well as waterboarding, walling, sexual humiliation, rape, sexual assault, subjection to extreme heat or extreme cold, and confinement in small coffin-like boxes. A Guantanamo inmate's drawings of some of these tortures, to which he himself was subjected, were published in The New York Times. Some of these techniques fall under the category known as "white room torture". Several detainees endured medically unnecessary "rectal rehydration", "rectal fluid resuscitation", and "rectal feeding". In addition to brutalizing detainees, there were threats to their families such as threats to harm children, and threats to sexually abuse or to cut the throat of detainees' mothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torture Memos</span> 2002 US government legal memoranda

A set of legal memoranda known as the "Torture Memos" were drafted by John Yoo as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States and signed in August 2002 by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, head of the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice. They advised the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States Department of Defense, and the president on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques—mental and physical torment and coercion such as prolonged sleep deprivation, binding in stress positions, and waterboarding—and stated that such acts, widely regarded as torture, might be legally permissible under an expansive interpretation of presidential authority during the "War on Terror."

<i>Known and Unknown: A Memoir</i> 2011 autobiographical book by Donald Rumsfeld

Known and Unknown: A Memoir is an autobiographical book by Donald Rumsfeld published through Penguin Group USA in February 2011. It covers a variety of his experiences such as serving as a member of the United States House of Representatives in the late 60s, as a member of the Nixon and Ford administrations during the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, and as George W. Bush's Secretary of Defense at the onset of the War on Terror.

James Steele is a consultant and retired United States Army officer whose military career and work as a military contractor from Vietnam to the Iraq War drew controversy for allegations of abuse and war crimes.

Michael E. Dunlavey is a former major general in the United States Army. Following his retirement from the Army he was elected a State Judge in Erie Pennsylvania.

<i>American Dharma</i> 2018 British-American documentary film

American Dharma is a 2018 British-American documentary film directed by Errol Morris. The film follows the career of political strategist Steve Bannon. The film was released on November 1, 2019, by Utopia.

References

  1. ↑ "The Unknown Known". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Morris, Errol (Director) (December 13, 2013). The Unknown Known (Motion picture). Los Angeles, CA: The Weinstein Company.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Higginbotham, Adam (June 11, 2014). "The Unknown Known: Errol Morris on Donald Rumsfeld". The Telegraph. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Baker, Jeff (April 9, 2014). "'The Unknown Known' review: Donald Rumsfeld, slippery as a snake and just as deadly". The Oregonion. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
  5. ↑ Kaplan, Fred (March 28, 2014). "Seeking Truth in a Blizzard of 'Snowflakes'". The New York Times. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
  6. 1 2 Hornaday, Ann (April 3, 2014). "'The Unknown Known' review: Documentary lets Donald Rumsfeld have his say". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
  7. 1 2 Turan, Kenneth (April 2, 2014). "Review: 'The Unknown Known' finds Donald Rumsfeld free of self-doubt". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  8. ↑ Guerrasio, Jason (March 20, 2015). "Oscar-winning director Errol Morris reveals what his Netflix series will be about". Business Insider. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Venezia 70". Venice Biennale . Retrieved July 27, 2013.
  10. ↑ Benzine, Adam (July 25, 2013). "Wiseman, Morris, Gibney set for Venice". Realscreen. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Venice film festival 2013: the full line-up". The Guardian. London. July 25, 2013. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
  12. ↑ "The Unknown Known (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  13. ↑ "The Unknown Known". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  14. ↑ Denby, David (April 21, 2014). "Field Maneuvers". The New Yorker . Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  15. ↑ Corliss, Mary (September 6, 2013). "Postcards from Venice Previews of Toronto". Time . Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  16. ↑ Colvert, Colin (May 1, 2014). "Donald Rumsfeld, artful dodger, in 'Unknown Known'". Star Tribune . Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  17. ↑ Reuter, Tim. "Donald Rumsfeld's Maddening Confession In The Unknown Known". Forbes. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  18. ↑ Romney, Jonathan (March 22, 2014). "The Unknown Known review – Donald Rumsfeld gets the Fog of War treatment" . Retrieved September 12, 2015.
  19. ↑ Turan, Kenneth (April 2, 2014). "Review: 'The Unknown Known' finds Donald Rumsfeld free of self-doubt" . Retrieved September 12, 2015.
  20. ↑ Thomson, David (October 10, 2013). "Donald Rumsfeld Is Finally Under Interrogation". The New Republic. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  21. ↑ Colvert, Colin. "Unknown known is no Fog of War 2". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.