Most great documentaries about political malfeasance features countless interviews with academics and reporters, the majority of whom are extremely knowledgeable about the topic. Yet rarely do you see direct participants sit down and talk with filmmakers about their role in the events. (We can thank their cautious PR people, worried of a negative soundbite in a nonstop news cycle.)
None of the big names in the financial crisis, on Wall Street or in Washington, sat down for “Inside Job.” (Prominent decliners are even listed on the film’s website.) SeaWorld didn’t talk to the makers of “Blackfish.” Yet for some odd reason, Donald Rumsfeld actually faced off with documentarian Errol Morris in an extensive interview that forms the backbone of “The Unknown Known.” Yes, the man with his hands in the cookie jar during events from Watergate to the war in Iraq agreed to sit down with a documentarian whose work has literally gotten someone off Death Row.
The very fact that “The Unknown Known” exists is dumbfounding in and of itself. Rumsfeld is no idiot, and he surely must have realized that the film was not going to be some puff piece to exonerate him in the annals of history. In fact, it was more likely to be a hatchet job than anything.
Morris, however, does not indulge all those who would love nothing more than to have the documentary serve as an unofficial trial for war crimes. He largely lets Rumsfeld spin his own narrative, occasionally interjecting with objections or pointed questions. At least from what we see, Morris and Rumsfeld never engage in an all-out shouting match like you’d see on “The O’Reilly Factor.”
Marshall and the Movies 
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