The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
posted by NotAnyRon on March 21, 2004
Errol Morris
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2003
I find that films such as this are extremely difficult to review. I couldn't sit in the theater and have a critical eye. I was simply sucked into the screen, hanging on every word that came out of McNamara's mouth.
Errol Morris managed to get a rare interview with Robert S. McNamara, the Secretary of Defense for both JFK and LBJ during the Vietnam war. It seems as though McNamara knows he is nearing the end of his life and wanted to get his story on record. The amazing quality of this interview is that McNamara looks upon his life with the filter of hindsight. The man has an amazing memory for details, and he shares many of them with us. His insights on war, killing and world politics are thought provoking, especially in a time when I feel that the American administration has used very little restraint with respect to these matters.
McNamara is very careful about what he says and doesn't say. He never expressed that he or the U.S. were wrong for what happened in World War II or Vietnam. The closest he came was to say that if the U.S. had lost WWII, he would likely have been tried as a war criminal for the fire bombings of Japan. His eyes spoke volumes more than any words possibly could, and the feeling communicated through them was regret.
For me the film was worthwhile on so many levels. It is a history lesson. It is a portrait of a man's life. It is a lesson on war, killing and politics. I was thrilled and engaged during every second of this film.