my Movie

Movie Details

Title:   The Unknown Known
Director:   Errol Morris
Year:   2013
Genre:   Documentary
Times Seen:   1
Last Seen:   09.23.13

Other Movies Seen By This Director (5)
- A Brief History of Time
- The Dark Wind
- Standard Operating Procedure
- Tabloid
- The Thin Blue Line

Notes History
Date Viewed Venue Note
09.23.13Alamo LakelineThis Screening is part of event: FantasticFest 2013
Errol Morris' new doc interviewing Donald Rumsfeld. I would say that Morris' recent predilection toward politics is maybe wearing thin but my experience with Tabloid (which could be seen as a return to form for him) felt kind of shallow compared to interviewing high-profile public officials like McNamara and Rumsfeld so... who knows.

I think it is pretty clear that he didn't exactly crack Rumsfeld like he did McNamara in Fog of War so instead the movie had to become more about Rumsfeld's perception of himself (similar to Oliver Stone's interviews with Fidel Castro). I still found this to be an engaging and captivating film and some of Rumsfeld's answers, arranged to most clearly show his... shifting viewpoints really hit home. "We don't assassinate people" / "That wasn't an assassination attempt, it was an act of war."

Mostly I just wonder what it's like to be Morris' subject. To sit there for hours, staring into his interrotron , looking into his slightly-crossed eyes, all those long silences between questions to let me keep talking if I feel like it. It's got to be a unique, and I'd guess unsettling, experience. Makes great movies though.