The Unknown Known

The Unknown Known also known as The Unknown Known The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld is a 2013 American documentary film about the life of former U.S. Secretary of Defense and congressman Donald Rumsfeld, directed by Academy Award winning documentarian and filmmaker Errol Morris. The film is a summary ofhours of interviews that Morris conducted with Rumsfeld over eleven separate sessions during visits to Boston, Massachusetts. It was screened in the main competition section at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, and premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 29, 2013. The film is dedicated to the memory of Roger Ebert.

At the beginning of the documentary, Rumsfeld argues a major purpose of the Department of Defense is to evaluate unknown knowns, or the things you think you know, that it turns out you did not, to anticipate hostile actions before they take place. Illustrating his point, Rumsfeld suggests that the failure of the United States to anticipate the attack on Pearl Harbor was a failure of imagination.As the interviews proceed, the director is able to catch his subject lying on camera, though when he does, Rumsfeld does not acknowledge it, with Morris finding the politician unable to engage in selfreflection. When the director asks him about the lessons he learnt from the Vietnam War, for example, Rumsfeld replies tersely Some things work out, some things dont that didnt. Rumsfeld also expresses goodnatured surprise at the list of torture techniques including hooding, stress positions, and nudity that he personally approved for use on Guantnamo detainees, stating, Good grief Thats a pile of stuff In follow up, Morris questions him about the socalled torture memos describing enhanced interrogation techniques. When Rumsfeld replies that he never read them, Morris responds in disbelief, Really? When asked if the Iraq War was a mistake, Rumsfeld replies, I guess time will tell. ........

Source: Wikipedia