Thursday, November 13, 2008

The Evil of Banality

Errol Morris, Standard Operating Procedure: a recipe

  • Whimsical, ironically inappropriate theme music.
  • The Interrotron (cf. Panopticon)
  • Images of total abjection, framed in gorgeous swathes of emotionally distancing black screen.
  • Near-autistic, acontextual commentary by quasi-illiterate, shell-shocked Appalachian youth.
  • Complete, utter lack of historical/cultural context.
  • Dramatic, beautifully photographed re-enactment of the deaths of actual human beings.

Three better recipes