The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

Starring:Barry Goldwater, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, Curtis LeMay, Robert McNamara, Richard Nixon, Harry Reasoner, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

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The Fog of War, the movie that finally won Errol Morris the best documentary Oscar, is a spellbinder. Morris interviews Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and finds a uniquely unsettling viewpoint on much of 20th-century American history. Employing a ton of archival material, including LBJ's fascinating taped conversations from the Oval Office, Morris probes the reasons behind the U.S. commitment to the Vietnam War--and finds a depressingly inconsistent policy. McNamara himself emerges as--well, not exactly apologetic, but clearly haunted by the what-ifs of Vietnam. He also mulls the bombing of Japan in World War II and the Cuban Missile Crisis, raising more questions than he answers. The Fog of War has the usual inexorable Morris momentum, aided by an uneasy Philip Glass score. This movie provides a glimpse inside government. It also encourages skepticism about same. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating.......2007-07-08

This is DVD gives honest and rare insight into the mind of a person with great influence.

...... THE ADVENT TO AMERICA'S ....." NEW MILITARY+INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX"...............2007-06-03

This is no movie...this is no documentary; however, you go face to face with one of the bloodiest butcher's in our history concerning 'the welfare' of our Armed Forces...it's the closet thing to a McNamara autobiography as he revels in introducing himself to the ordinary hard working American and the valiant troops who languished in Vietnam; truly, he now appears in a light colored trench/coat out of the fog and mist of the war years [WW2 thru Vietnam]...he is very amicable, cozy and almost human, while revealing momentous times that shine light on a 'different' Robert McNamara who was Secretary of Defense under Presidents: Kennedy-Johnson...precisely, he had the lives of every member in our fighting Armed Forces tightly in the grip of his blood/soaked hands...he was dicitorial/authoritive and only held accountable to 'his' President[s]...he relished his role of Sec of Defense and the custodian/ship of a new concept of how America will go to WAR from Vietnam right up into the Iraq war...full knowing what this 'US Military-Industrial Complex' is all encompassing...just prior to President Dwight Eisenhower's retirement, he warned the American people to be most wary of this exclusive 'Military-Industrial Complex'.....after a comprehensive education at University of California and later Harvard University, the top men of power seeked and desired McNamara's counsel; henceforth, he was with the elite that makes America march to their collective drums...I don't buy his tear-filled mea-culpa on film at all...not at all...I say every mud combatant/soldier, who suffered severely in the WAR in Vietnam [1962-1967] should be his judge, and you'll learn from their deprivations, and no chance to win the war...just how he was truly HATED [talk about another Martin Borman]...Bob, I suggest, you take your quest for an elite life, which you attained, now go, with hat in hand and pander your wares somewhere else...I'm never buying your revised/snake oil...good riddance!!.....SSGT CHRIS SARNO-USMC FMF

A very human account.......2007-05-29

An up close and personal look at the responsibilities of those who make war happen. Shows humans with a superhuman task.

dust to dust.......2007-05-02

This brilliant series of interviews with Robert McNamara should be required viewing for *anyone* before he or she is authorized to venture an opinion regarding what America should or should not do with its power. I do not begin my review because of any clear sense of the virtue or villainy of Bob McNamara's legacy as president of the Ford Motor Company, Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and long-time president of the World Bank.

Far from it, the spendidly drawn impression is how dangerously concentrated power becomes in the hands of fragile, myopic, regular men and women who in many--most?--cases want to do the right thing.

McNamara's memory ranges from World War I to the extinction of River Blindness in Africa through the World Bank's efforts. For understandable reasons, the camera and the questions linger most on the Viet Nam era, for this is where McNamara took 'the world stage', as he puts it.

Clearly enamored of John Kennedy, McNamara had a more complex relationship with Johnson, whom he admired but with whom he came to disagree in a process that led to McNamara's firing just shortly before Johnson made his epic decision not to run for reelection.

As THE FOG OF WAR touches time and again upon the deliberations that framed the Bay of Pigs crisis and then the Southeast Asian war itself, one hears via the clarity of taped conversations how little we knew and, proverbially, how close we came to ultimate war.

McNamara has passionate remarks to offer on the very timely matter of taking America's strength into battle when we have failed to convince our allies of that course.

Kudos to McNamara for complicating his legacy even more by achieving astonshing things through some of the World Bank's better years.

Required viewing.

The Mediocre Achievements of a Mediocre Man.......2007-05-02

What happens when supposedly great men, upon closer examination, turn out not to be so great, after all? What happens in this particular case is a piece of icon-washing fostered by Errol Morris who apparently couldn't think of a better subject to film a documentary about.

All the accolades regarding this film would lead one to believe that it is about a titanic human individual who achieved great things, but when one actually watches the film, one sees nothing of the sort. Robert McNamara, a man who, in early pictures and footage of himself, is so bursting with arrogance and self-importance that he all but glows, played Mephistopheles to Kennedy and Johnson up until about 1967. That is to say that he provided these men with war strategies and troops and generally brought about the means by way of which their wars could be fought.

Errol Morris is an expert filmmaker and, as usual, his film is graced with the hypnotic music of Philip Glass, whose soundtracks are all but indistinguishable from one another. Indeed, the soundtrack from Koyannisqatsi might have been substituted here to provide exactly the same effect. Morris's camera angles and editing are never boring, but this viewer does not share his fascination with his interview subject.

McNamara evinces guilt about his involvements in war and appears on the verge of tears in many scenes as he recalls difficult decisions made about the Vietnam war. But as the film winds down, it becomes evident that McNamara is proud of his "achievements," although it is difficult to see how sending 58,000 young Americans to their deaths can be regarded as an achievement to be proud of. McNamara would have been better off had he remained as the head of the Ford Motor Company. Perhaps then his "achievements" that he is so proud of might have really added up to something instead of a head full of phantom shadows and dead soldiers.

It is generally considered bad form to give low ratings to an Errol Morris film, and this viewer certainly agrees that he is a very good filmmaker, indeed. Unfortunately, here his choice of subject matter fails him, for McNamara is rarely insightful regarding his role as Secretary of Defense. One comes to the film expecting McNamara to shed light upon obscure happenings, or to reveal dark secrets about what went on behind the scenes, but no such luck. In effect, all McNamara can muster up is a half-hearted "that's the way it was." There are no insights on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the back of the DVD case promises, and the stunning revelations regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis amount to nothing more than that in those days, we actually came close to nuclear war and that it was only averted by sheer luck. Hmm. The film suffers throughout from this kind of glibness.

McNamara just isn't that interesting. Whatever his talents as a CEO, this is not a man given to insightful philosophical speculation. And it shows in the superficial comments that he makes about war being "just human nature."

Nice try, Mr. Morris. Next time, how about doing a film about somebody who really deserves the time and expense spent upon them?

--John David Ebert, author of Celluloid Heroes & Mechanical Dragons: Film as the Mythology of Electronic Society

Charlie Rose with Robert McNamara & Errol Morris (November 11, 2003)

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Charlie Rose with Robert McNamara & Errol Morris (November 11, 2003)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Description

A look into the new documentary film, The Fog of War, about former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara's role in the US government, particularly during the Vietnam War. Robert McNamara and director Errol Morris discuss the production and significance of the film.

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara [Region 2]

Average customer rating:

Fascinating
...... THE ADVENT TO AMERICA'S ....." NEW MILITARY+INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX"........
A very human account
dust to dust
The Mediocre Achievements of a Mediocre Man

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara [Region 2]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Customer Reviews:

Fascinating.......2007-07-08

This is DVD gives honest and rare insight into the mind of a person with great influence.

...... THE ADVENT TO AMERICA'S ....." NEW MILITARY+INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX"...............2007-06-03

A very human account.......2007-05-29

An up close and personal look at the responsibilities of those who make war happen. Shows humans with a superhuman task.

dust to dust.......2007-05-02

The Mediocre Achievements of a Mediocre Man.......2007-05-02

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