Documentary Analysis
A Society Formed Through Decisions
Every society begins with a variety of choices that expands into the formation of how that society should be governed. Donald Rumsfeld highlights the specific decisions he made while holding several positions within the United States government in the documentary Unknown Known developed by Errol Morris. Rumsfeld firsts creates confusion in the very beginning. Eventually the viewers grasp that Rumsfeld is claiming there are a variety of ideas we know and we don’t know which can have a lasting impact on society. At first glance the audience is unclear what that means exactly until Rumsfeld begins supporting his claim with his memos and the recollection behind writing them. Throughout the documentary he recalls several major events where he reflects on the choices he made, his reasoning behind those choices, and how that impacted others. The documentary sheds light on a variety of major topics while still upholding the overall concept of impacting society which shows the sophisticated construction of the piece. The association between the audience, subject, and context is highlighted through the use of visual displays which appeal to emotion. These combinations of elements help myself and other members of the audience to conclude that Rumsfeld is indeed intelligent within his field, but his personal beliefs influence the choices he makes.
With most documentaries that focus on a singular person, the filmmaker will give an introduction to who the subject is and their back story. With the Unknown Known the audience is first introduced to Rumsfeld by seeing the image of him being placed in a black background and beginning to make his thesis which can be confusing at first glance. The audience will soon learn more about Rumsfeld throughout the film and will begin to understand negative and positive aspects of him through his statements. This makes it hard to establish a clear image of Rumsfeld based on the conflicting viewpoints. Morris wants to show that Rumsfeld can be a reliable source of information by showcasing his long pages of memos that are stacked on top of each other within a visually tall building. This opens the audience up to gain an idea about the dedication he has put into these memos and gives a sense of his overall work ethic. There are some statements however that make the audience question his credibility. For instance, when asked about the confusion amongst the majority of Americans surrounding Iran’s involvement in the war, Rumsfeld claimed he did not know why Americans got the negative impression about Iran that they did. Yet right after he was stumbling to find the right words to say, a clip of him at a press conference talking about Iran in a negative way appeared. There are a couple occurrences besides this one where Rumsfeld is viewed as contradicting his previous statements by showing clips that state the opposite of what he said during the interviews. Even though there are contradictions, Morris re-establishes his credibility by showing other claims which was supported by his experiences as well as his documentation of events that are spelled out throughout his memos. Each piece of contradictory or supported evidence makes the audience conceive an overall impression of Rumsfeld as a person of high intelligence with lots of experience, but a person who still has flaws. This makes the audience realize how decision making affects the impressions others have on you since the audience is doing that when analyzing Rumsfeld.
Like most pieces of this film, the subject is not entirely clear until the end when all the pieces come together as one. Throughout the film Rumsfeld talks about many different subjects and events which shaped his thoughts in today’s time. Morris shows the change in subject through various ways. The memos are the main focus in the piece and it is highlighted when talking about each historical event. Many times Rumsfeld will actually quote what he documented in his memos and the screen presents an image of an older looking paper in the background which are representations of his memos or many times are the actual memos themselves. As Rumsfeld speaks the subject becomes easier to follow when the viewers have the memos word for word in front of them. In many cases where the memos are shown, the important details that Rumsfeld and Morris wants the viewers to take away from each claim are made to stand out in the memos using bolding or highlighting. By doing this, the viewers are slowly putting together the idea behind initial claim of the importance in our known unknowns made through each piece of evidence.
The context is stated in the very beginning when Rumsfeld claims that there are “known knowns” and “known unknowns” which can affect individuals and society as a whole. From analyzing this I have gathered that Rumsfeld means we base our decisions on what we know and do not know. Rumsfeld dives deeper to claim that critical decision making also requires one to think about the unforeseen possibilities that goes with every choice. He emphasizes the importance of this within policy makers due to the fact that they have power to heavily alter the world. Morris did a superb job with uncomplicating exactly what Rumsfeld is trying to teach them through the use of the timeline that the audience are taken through the documentary. The realization sets in at the end when Rumsfeld ties in his thoughts, that Rumsfeld played a huge role in American and diplomatic politics that have shaped America and parts of the world today. Rumsfeld and Morris highlight specific points in the timeline where decisions were tough, such as when he was wanting to retire several times after he felt as though he failed the American people. However, there were also times where he seemed to be cruel, such as when talking about trying to assassinate Saddam Hussien and he realized he failed but not before he “killed some people”. By him casually talking about killing innocent lives, it shows the viewers the mindset Rumsfeld had to be in when making these tough decisions. This detail goes back to the main topic on the effect of the choices we make and how they not only influence others but how choices influence ourselves. With every piece of context presented in this film, the original thesis begins to take shape that leads up to the last few summarizations of Rumsfeld’s crucial points.
The overall takeaway from this documentary can be found within Rumsfeld’s memos, and interviews. Those were not the only factors that made the creation of this film. The visual displays that the filmmaker produced created a visually appealing film which the audience can follow with interest. All of the details set in place create conflicting ideas about Rumsfeld, making the audience go back and forth deciding if he is a decent politician or a corrupted one. The audience should be left with a new perspective about politicians decision making, as well as their own decision making. They should be able to recognize the utter most importance of each choice they make and how it will affect them later on in the future. By analyzing the past we can shape a better future, but only if we do not repeat the same mistakes. This is why Rumsfeld not only highlights his perfections, but he also took an in-depth look into his failures.
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