A fine review in The New Yorker of the Errol Morris documentary on Donald Rumsfeld, THE UNKNOWN KNOWN The director Errol Morris proceeds with bonhomie and patience in this documentary interrogation of Donald Rumsfeld; the result is a masterwork of political epistemology and dialectical jujitsu. Focussing on several of the estimated million-plus memos that Rumsfeld wrote in his five decades of public service, Morris captures the politician’s obsession with words and their definitions—and, in the process, teases out the theoretical arrogance that marked Rumsfeld’s career. In a private profession, Rumsfeld might be merely an amiable crank. But, entering government and serving under the likes of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, he passed for an intellectual whose ideas, because ideologically useful, went unexamined, until, in practice, they proved disastrous. Morris gets Rumsfeld to look closely at the elusive information on which political decisions are made—and Rumsfeld earns honest sympathy when he reads from a mid-2001 memo worrying about another Pearl Harbor-like surprise attack occurring on his watch. But, by comparing Rumsfeld’s present-day interpretations with the historical record (including his many television appearances during the Bush era), Morris reconstructs the mentalities of power and reveals the crucial political importance of character and judgment—and quietly despairs.—R.B. (In limited release.)
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 22:49:34 +0000
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