classicalsteve There's something maddeningly chaotic about Donald Rumsfeld's logic in terms of US international policy. When he was in press conferences during the Iraq War under W Bush, Rumsfeld's answers to tough questions often rang of the so-called "double-speak", a term which is associated with but not explicitly used in George Orwell's "1984". He would respond with other questions or make unfunny jokes. He would use strange metaphors. Rarely did he simply answer direct questions. Errol Morris' documentary about Rumsfeld is strangely similar. He has Rumsfeld do most of the talking, and what comes out of the former Defense Secretary's mouth is a barrage of inconsistencies, untruths, and illogical conclusions. In short, Rumsfeld's whole way of thinking is a jumbled incomprehensible mess. And yet, he was one of the most powerful people in the W Bush administration during the first decade of the 21st century. You could argue W Bush had flawed judgment, Dick Cheney was immoral, but Rumsfeld is in his own realm. As Morris said in an interview, he was one of the most "self-deceiving" people he had ever interviewed.The format of the documentary is one of the strangest you'll ever see in a film of this type. The subject himself is the narrator. He narrates and then comments on the different subjects covered in the documentary. He occasionally answers questions posed by Errol Morris who can be heard in the background. One of the former Defense Secretary's most interesting phrases is "the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence", a phrase coined by Carl Sagan when referring to the unknown realms of outer space. Rumsfeld is famous for composing 1000's of email memos, and recurring throughout the memos are his definitions of particular words and terms which are displayed on-screen. The film traces his childhood, his early years in politics under President Nixon and briefly under Gerald Ford. He was an adviser for Governor Reagan and later for President Reagan and George Bush Senior. Most of the documentary concerns the Iraq War and his tenure as Defense Secretary under George W Bush.One example which highlights Rumsfeld own self-deception and denial is when Morris asks about the public perception concerning Saddam Hussein after the 9/11 attacks. Rumsfeld in the documentary claims people knew that Hussein and Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. The documentary then cuts to a Rumsfeld press conference clip of 2003 in which a reporter quotes Saddam Hussein: "I would like to tell you directly we have no relationship with Al Queada." Rumsfeld's reply: "And Abraham Lincoln was short." The reporter than asks Rumsfeld to respond to Hussein's statement and the Secretary of Defense simply says that Hussein "rarely tells the truth". The implication is clear: Rumsfeld wants the public to believe that Hussein and Iraq contributed to 9/11. If you read between the lines, and realize what is unsaid rather than said, Rumsfeld never actually states that Hussein is lying about having a relationship with Al-Queada. He makes the Lincoln analogy joke and he says that Hussein has a pattern of lying, but never once did Rumsfeld himself directly accuse Hussein of lying about having a relationship Al-Quaeda. This is the kind of double-talk, doublespeak which is how Rumsfeld's reasoning seems to work.People have criticized the documentary as raising many more questions than it answers. This may be the point of the film. Rumsfeld comes off, at best, as a completely self-deceived person whose rationalities have no logic, and at worst an amoral international leader who got us into an unjust war. His logic, we "lacked imagination" to see the Japanese coming when they attacked Pearl Harbor and thereby justifies the War in Iraq. As Morris points out in an interview, if we can imagine our enemies doing anything in the future, then we can rationalize military operations for almost any reason at any time.

Steve Pulaski Donald Rumsfeld has the power to fascinate some, alienate and irritate others, but mesmerize many, which makes him the perfect person to sit before Errol Morris's trademark device known as "the Interrotron" and provide us with a wealth of information on his life as the U.S. Secretary of Defense during the birth and height of the War on Terror in America. Morris's "Interrotron" is a device that allows the subject to look through a two way mirror and see Errol Morris, with a camera the subject can't see being pointed at them. This allows for a more conversational approach to an interview, and because Morris is such a confident documentarian (especially in this case), his style and approach to his subjects allows for something more impressive and entertaining than your average "talking head" documentary.Immediately, any fan of Morris will compare The Unknown Known to his other film The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, which showed Morris talking to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, who served during some of the most critical times in American history, like the Bay of Pigs crisis and the Vietnam War. McNamara was a subject who you didn't need to make talk, for he always seemed to be alive and interested in sharing his ideas and his experiences with Morris. On this hand, Rumsfeld feels more interested in trying to find easy answers and dodge some of Morris's most biting questions (including whether or not having the United States involve themselves in Iraq's affairs and eventually engaging in a war with them was justified or miscalculated).One can see Rumsfeld is a seasoned veteran when it comes down to giving cleverly-worded answers as opposed to straight ones. When looking to explain certain topics, Rumsfeld gets lost in cute words, unnecessary wording that's prime purpose is to be confusing (just look at the film's title, which is a direct quote from Rumsfeld himself), and inane sloganeering and simplifying. I was reminded of the documentary Nick Nolte: No Exit, where actor Nick Nolte decided to make a film about him interviewing himself in a weirdly-meta format. Nolte was less interested in answering the questions and more interested with simply talking around them, which made me question why he even bothered to make a documentary about interviewing himself when he was going to answer any questions he was going to ask himself in the first place. But at least Nolte didn't tack on a goofy and quietly infuriating grin at the end of his answers.Rumsfeld isn't that bad when compared to Nolte, however. After all, he doesn't take the hugely-questionable route of interviewing himself with the film, but he still finds ways to dodge clear answers to Morris's serious questions and finds ways to confuse himself, and the audience for that matter, throughout the documentary. For example, an early scene in the film involves Rumsfeld defining the four levels of "knowns" in the world. He tells us "known knowns" are things we know we know. He says "known unknowns" are things we know we don't know. He says "unknown unknowns" are things we know we don't know. And finally, he acknowledges the film's title and tells us "unknown knowns" are things we thought we knew but didn't. This ridiculous way of phrasing concepts will only further make political concepts more abstract to the politically ignorant, probably enforcing the reason why they're lost all the more.The concept of "knowns" came to be when Rumsfeld acknowledged the presence of weapons of mass-destruction (WMDs) in Irag in 2002 during a speech which went on to be known from the single line "there are known knowns." In other words, Rumsfeld was supremely confident that the then-ruler of Iraq Saddam Hussein was housing WMDs in Iraq and was up to no good. The Unknown Known explores Rumsfeld's duty as the Secretary of Defense during that time and the legacy he left on the cabinets he was employed under, Gerald Ford and George W. Bush, respectively. During his time, Rumsfeld came to be known as someone who wrote and issued the most memorandums to other officials he worked with. Rumsfeld states that just from working at The Pentagon for a relatively short time he issued over 20,000 memos, so in his lifetime, he had to have issued well over a million, so he claims.The Unknown Known is conducted at a brisk pace, with Morris's editing and confident filmmaking techniques taking prominence over Rumsfeld's detailed accounts on how it was to work in The Pentagon on the day of September 11, 2001 and his wishy-washy answers on methods of torture and the hugely controversial act of waterboarding. The one detail I noticed with the film is how Morris's editing seemed to play a bigger role than ever with this film to the point where I question whether or not Rumsfeld was dancing around questions or was Morris editing the interview together in such a strange way.Despite the film being easy to compare to Morris's The Fog of War, I find that the film could also easily be compared to one Morris's more recent efforts by the name of Tabloid, an underrated documentary concerning a former Miss Wyoming model who allegedly kidnapped and raped a Mormon missionary. I find both The Unknown Known and Tabloid to be two of a kind because they both show how people can come to their own conclusions and work hard to establish the truth that they want to believe. Even The Fog of War had truth-seeking undertones in the regard that it showed McNamara's perspective on certain issues, showing that history isn't so objective after all. If Errol Morris's films thus far have a moral to them that connects each one in some way, I'm pretty confident in saying I have found something within them all.Starring: Donald Rumsfeld. Directed by: Errol Morris.

Noah Stobor This documentary was just as gratuitous and ridiculous as our government. Morris thought he was smart and clever with this documentary but really answered no questions and made himself look as silly and absent as any politician. His tactics were narcissistic and self righteous and he fits right in with any ambitious capitalist trying to "up" someone, making him seem more intelligent, when he really showed he is lacking in film making and story telling. All Morris did was show commonalities with himself and Rumsfeld. If he wants to create a documentary, maybe he should take interviewing classes instead of trying to massage his own ego.

cchardon-923-319604 Donald Rumsfeld and Errol Morris are two senior men, not lacking success and self-esteem, Errol offering an audience and to Donald, to re-write his Historie.What usually interests the film-maker is how people try so hard not to see the truth. Interesting angle. The movie was born from the numerous memos from Donald Rumsfeld, also a good Start! The movie has a high quality production and the effects are great, the soundtrack is pervasive … that is where all begins. It is produced like a Hollywood movie and formally gives the impressions of deepness. As spectator, it is embarrassing to see this long PR-Advertisement. Rumsfeld knows how to behave in front of a camera. He knows how to confuse, using pseudo-philosophical generalizations like The "unknown known". Unfortunately, the story-telling is full of inaccuracies and lies. The spectator is left alone, without anybody to counters or explains the infatuations of this guy.Irak had been invaded because the FBI was delivering wrong information? I invite you to watch the movie "Fair Game" instead of "the Unknown Known"… Rumsfeld pronounces the name of Dick Cheney, I would have wished his view about the privatization of the war through companies like Halliburton and Blackwater.I wish I would have not seen this propaganda-movie. The only thing I learnt is to avoid the next movies from Errol Morris.