The Fog Of War [DVD] [2004]

In terms of technique, the film is excellent. This is a film about a serious subject, but it is also a film serious about its art. Morris exploits fully the advantages of cinema as a medium, both aurally and visually. Sound is used to evoke a perpetually ominous atmosphere, and the original score, composed by Philip Glass, is complementary without ever becoming intrusive. The images hold the eye without obscuring the facts being communicated: there is a particularly good series of close-up shots of retro reel-to-reel tape players used as a backdrop to recorded conversations (the Whitehouse Tapes) between McNamara and his two Presidents; and one very effective montage shows simply the names of bombed Japanese cities juxtaposed with the names of American cities of an equivalent size. (I had never considered that Tokyo was about as big as New York.)

But it is the footage of McNamara himself that really holds the attention of the audience. Morris has the him scrutinised constantly by the camera lens, initially in wide-shots, but eventually, as the film progresses and the subjects become more difficult, in searing, penetrating close-ups. As McNamara puts forward his case his face reveals multitudes; but the camera never feels intrusive and we sense a tacit agreement between Morris and McNamara that they are doing something that needs to be done. Occasionally McNamara appears cold, going strangely silent after speaking length on some subject, reluctant to go further; but mostly he is open - one extremely poignant moment shows him describing, with tears in his eyes, his walk through Arlington Cemetery, shortly after the November 22 assassination, to choose a burial site for JFK.

Morris structures the film around the eleven "lessons" of the title, each segment introduced by a caption. Although slightly artificial, this segmentation is useful, because it allows us to focus on very specific aspects of McNamara's dialogue. And as dialogues with politicians go, this one is intimate, compelling, and worthy of our attention. There are very few questions edited into the film, and little direct confrontation between interviewer and interviewee: McNamara is offering the viewer lessons about the waging of war, lessons - again, as the title suggests - drawn from his experiences as Secretary of Defense, senior executive at Ford, officer in the Army Air Forces, and student of philosophy, economics, and business. It is for us to consider the evidence and make our judgements.

Odd evasion aside - and who would not evade questions like: "do you feel guilty about the Vietnam War?" - McNamara gives (and Morris presents) an impressively candid interview; anyone interested in the people and decision-making processes of the period will enjoy it. As for McNamara himself, he comes across as an intelligent and rational player on the stage of history. But as he might say, sometimes intelligence and rationality aren't worth a damn.

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Far from being a film that glorifies McNamara, this is a documentary in which the former Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations expresses his opinions sincerely, and privileges the facts even if they don't always make him look well. Moreover, "The Fog of War" includes visual and audio footage of historical value that backs up many of the things that McNamara points out, and that will be of interest to those who would like to learn more about Mr. McNamara, but also about American history.

At the time in which this documentary was filmed, Robert McNamara was 85 years old, and said that he was at a point in his life where he could look back and draw some conclusions regarding what he did in the past. Needless to say, the spectator will be grateful to be allowed to hear his opinions about his life, and the events that he participated in. McNamara lived during the Cold ("Cold War... Hell, it was a hot war"), and went through the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam, among other things. He was a professor, worked in the military, as president of Ford and as Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War. McNamara didn't led a boring life, and he tried to take advantage of his experiences ("My mission in life is to understand") in order not to make the same mistake too many times.

I was shocked by the casual way in which he talked about the death of Japanese civilians during Second War II ("I was part of a mechanism", "I had to make it more efficient not in the sense of killing more people but of weakening the adversary"). I was also somehow surprised by some acute observations McNamara made regarding the nature of nuclear war, highlighting the fact that "They'll be no learning period with nuclear weapons. Make one mistake and you're going to destroy nations".

The way in which McNamara tells the interviewer that after learning new facts about old events he discovered that he had taken a completely wrong course of action is pretty interesting. The problem, in many cases, had to do with the "fog of war", that is the lack of complete information that doesn't allow those in charge to make informed decisions during a war. If possible, pay attention to what McNamara says about the Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. You will probably find some of those revelations interesting...

All in all, I think that "The Fog of War" is the best documentary I have watched so far, and I highly recommend it to you. You might agree or not with Robert McNamara's eleven "lessons" and the things says, but I am sure that you will find them interesting, and worth thinking about.

Belen Alcat

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The film is elegant. Its use of graphics and mood music, even when McNamara is talking to camera ensure that. Its agenda appears at the beginning to be one of getting you to see through the patina of charm McNamara has. At one point they show him ‘working’ the film crew of the documentary ‘ne need to retake, I remember where I was… have you got that… shall we go’etc and him doing exactly the same 40 years ago at a press conference during the Cuban missile crisis. But the film then goes into biopic mode and you see McNamara from his early days, college, married life, war service and then business career and it starts to feel like they and you are beginning to warm to McNamara. And so you do. McNamara asks tougher questions of himself then he ever gets from the off camera interviewer: was I war criminal; could I have avoided Vietnam becoming what it did and did I harm my family by the choices I made. While he doesn’t become a loveable old cove you start to think he was a sensitive man who simply had to make decisions, something the left appear to forget. Wouldn’t you just love to see Harold Pinter have to deal with missiles pointing at Hampstead or whether to risk more deaths of your own soldiers so that less of an enemy could be killed?

McNamara has faced up to his decisions and gone to Vietnam to meet his victims. The film describes a man travelling back down the road he has travelled, trying to understand and for the most part it is convincing as part testimonial part confessional. It’s also a fascinating primer for 2nd half 20th century history. In the end you think of him as a good man doing as little evil as possible and now regetting even that measure, hoping others can avoid his circumstances.

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