{"id":138940,"date":"2014-03-31T00:01:04","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T07:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/?p=138940"},"modified":"2014-02-09T09:20:16","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T16:20:16","slug":"the-unknown-known-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/2014\/03\/31\/the-unknown-known-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unknown Known Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
THE UNKNOWN KNOWN<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
Radius-TWC<\/strong><\/div>\n
Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes<\/strong><\/div>\n
Grade: \u00a0B<\/strong><\/div>\n
Director: \u00a0Errol Morris<\/strong><\/div>\n
Cast: \u00a0Donald Rumsfeld, Errol Morris<\/strong><\/div>\n
Screened at: \u00a0 Park Avenue, NYC, 1\/31\/14<\/strong><\/div>\n
Opens: \u00a0April 2, 2014<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
Based on the mistakes that Donald Rumsfeld made\u2014and noting that he seems to offer no apology for them\u2014perhaps the U.S. would have been served better if Don were a secretary to a middle manager of Walmart than U.S. Secretary of Defense. \u00a0In Errol Morris\u2019s highly stylized documentary\u2014punctuated by Danny Elfman\u2019s original score, some snazzy editing and a wealth of special effects\u2014Rumsfold smiles insincerely, is fond of using euphemisms like \u201cstuff happens,\u201d \u201check,\u201d and \u201cgoodness gracious. \u00a0Yet he is also likable to the movie audience as a person but not much if evaluated by his affection for President George W. Bush. \u00a0Bush got us into Iraq and Rumsfeld defended it, and what\u2019s more, he peppers the screen with a love for lexicography. \u00a0He differentiates between the Pentagon dictionary and the \u201cregular\u201d lexicon. Each time the former secretary throws out a word for definition, documentarian Morris litters the screen with words. \u00a0Morris seems bent on reproducing a good share of the 20,000 memos that Rumsfeld sent while in the Defense chair, and the filmmaker is determined\u2014and usually succeeds\u2014in making what could have been like a dull Congressional hearing on C-Span into a work that is of interest to the audience. \u00a0The subject of the film calls his memos \u201csnowflakes,\u201d a reference to their ubiquity, but then, no two snowflakes are alike, yet we wonder how original snowflake from November 2003 could be versus snowflake from December 2003.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Though Rumsfeld granted Morris thirty hours of his time, the filmmaker does not feel beholden to give him the fluff treatment. Always wearing a suit with a tie though the latter has become no longer obligatory, he speaks to Morris and to us with cryptic, abstract sentences, wherein we get the title \u201cthe unknown known.\u201d \u00a0Sounding like a student trying to decipher S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard and Jeremy Bentham, he notes that \u201cthere are known knowns, unknown knowns, and unknown unknowns.\u201d \u00a0Repeating his \u201cphilosophy\u201d several times in this film, he appears to contradict himself when he defends U.S. policy in giving Iraq the shock and awe treatment (definitions of which are put up on the big screen), yet admits that there are some things that we think we know and yet we do not.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Don Rumsfeld is nothing if not a political person, having taken his career with government step by step from four terms in the House of Representatives, shuffling about in the Nixon cabinet, and emerging from Watergate whistle clean. \u00a0He was almost chosen as Ronald Reagan\u2019s running mate in 1980, a job that went instead of George H.W. Bush. \u00a0No love was lost between Bush senior and Rumsfeld.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
One cannot determine whether he is sincere in offering President Bush 43 his resignation when \u201cterrible things happened on my watch,\u201d specifically the hideous torture of Muslim prisoners by American servicemen even when the humiliations had nothing to do with potential information the inmates could supply. \u00a0In the final question asked of Rumsfeld, \u201cWhy are you speaking to me?\u201d the former secretary evaded the question as if to say, \u201cHey, Errol, it\u2019s publicity, good or bad: who cares?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In \u201cMy Fair Lady,\u201d Eliza Doolittle says to Professor Henry Higgins, \u201cWords, words, words, I\u2019m so sick of words,\u201d Eliza would not have stayed in the movie theater for more than fifteen minutes listening to the secretary\u2019s logorrhea, and for his part, Errol Morris uses the vast ocean, waves abounding, as metaphor for an ocean of words. \u00a0Entertaining though the doc may be, we may wonder whether any truth can come from the mouth of a man who is determined to justify himself at all costs and seems unwilling to break down and confess to an unnecessary war.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Rated PG-13. 102 minutes. \u00a0\u00a9 2014 by Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
Story – B-<\/strong><\/div>\n
Acting – B<\/strong><\/div>\n
Technical – B<\/strong><\/div>\n
Overall – B<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE UNKNOWN KNOWN \u00a0 Radius-TWC Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes Grade: \u00a0B Director: \u00a0Errol Morris Cast: \u00a0Donald Rumsfeld, Errol Morris Screened at: \u00a0 Park Avenue, NYC, 1\/31\/14 Opens: \u00a0April 2, 2014 \u00a0 Based on the mistakes that Donald Rumsfeld made\u2014and noting that he seems to offer no apology for them\u2014perhaps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-reviews"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Unknown Known Movie Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE UNKNOWN KNOWN \u00a0 Radius-TWC Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. 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