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