The Unknown Known

After the bizarre sex scandal story chronicled in 2010's Tabloid, director Errol Morris returns to the battleground of US foreign policy that earned him an Oscar for 2003's The Fog of War. The latter saw Morris interview Robert McNamara, who was Secretary of Defense during the 1960s; under scrutiny here is the disturbingly ebullient Donald Rumsfeld, who held the same post under President George W Bush. Morris not only has unhindered access to the man himself but also his so-called "snowflakes", a blizzard of memos that the author gleefully recites throughout. Indeed, it's one such memo about knowns and unknowns that inspired the film's title (unknown knowns are "things you think you know that turn out you did not" - a bit like Rumsfeld). His involvement with major events of the 21st century (9/11, the Iraq War, the War on Terror) is at the heart of the movie, but what's equally fascinating is his proximity to the previous century's history, too: Watergate, US withdrawal from Vietnam, the Iraq-Iran War. Rumsfeld is certainly an enigmatic figure: avuncular, infuriatingly casual ("we killed some people"), unrepentant, evasive, with a Cheshire Cat grin that slips memorably when he reflects on the missed opportunity to become Ronald Reagan's Vice President (and thus a potential president). Morris skilfully allows his target to revel in his own doublespeak while strategically illustrating any contradictions with spot-on archive and Danny Elfman's incisive score. All historical documents should be as insightful, informative and compelling as this.