'The Unknown Known' A Review

The Unknown Known is the latest documentary from Errol Morris about Donald Rumsfeld, a companion piece to The Fog of War. Morris along with his Interrotron set his sights on the former Secretary of Defense focusing primarily on the lead up to Iraq War, its execution, and its fall out, with some cursory outlining of Rumsfeld's previous career.

The majority of the film is a straight on interview with Rumsfeld with him occasionally reading various memos he wrote dubbed "snowflakes". There are periodic cuts to archival footage, text juxtaposed with serene waters, and time-elapsed shots but mostly we just get a whole lot of leering, smug, self-satisfied Rummy.

Fans of the McNamara focused Fog Of War may need to reorient when watching this film because in conceit it is similar but in execution it is quite different. McNamara is intelligent with a mastery and grasp of many different things, he agreed to be interviewed because he had something to say. Rumsfeld is a rhetorician with an almost willful ignorance of the functions of government in which he so long worked. Rumsfeld reveals himself to be incapable of reflection, unable to draw any conclusions, similarities or lessons from not only his own history but history at large. He is unable to recognize irony, showing no reaction or awareness when he contradicts himself. When asked at the end of the film why he agreed to do it he responds "Why, I don't know." And you get the sense he actually doesn't.

There is no "gotcha" moment in The Unknown Known. Rumsfeld doesn't admit fault in anything he has ever done. What comes into focus is Donald Rumsfeld himself. What kind of a man he is and how he views himself and the world. He is not a dumb man but he is certainly not a smart man either. He has an obsessive mastery of rhetoric but seems to hold no other passion. He talks without saying anything and seems to genuinely believe his obfuscations are answers. He lives wholly in the present and gives the past and future absolutely no thought or consideration. This quality extends from years to seconds. Moment to moment Rumsfeld seems to be constantly refreshed, like a computer screen, bland and seemingly accommodating.

A film with no political catharsis but a brilliant and horrifying portrait of a man who is a passenger in his own life.

Rent It.