The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2004)

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 Amazon.com

A war criminal remembers ...

The old boy is a war criminal, remember that! The fog was in his head, when he helped to lie the USA into attacking a country that posed no threat to the USA or anyone else. (Sound familiar?) July 9, 2008

Must see.....

Gotta watch McNamara discuss his role in the quagmire we called the Vietnam War. There is a message in this film and it isn't in the interview itself.
Excellent for thinking people. May 21, 2008

Excellent teaching tool

My husband watched this movie during one of his Administration in Education classes, he decided to buy it and use it at the high school. He was very impressed with the "lessons" in the movie, it is worth the watch. May 15, 2008

Comment

Found this an informative movie from Robert S. MacNamara's perspective.It is good to hear what people whose decisions affect many have to say. The lessons the former Sec. of Def. presents reflect his ability to draw lessons from history. And to share them.

Though Mr. MacNamara served in the military earlier in his life his tenure as Secretary of Defense does not appear to reflect an adequate understanding of war or of strategy.

This movie shows that what he may have once thought was a straight forward and apparently clear path to victory in SE Asia, turned out to be an extremely difficult, messy and costly affair. Management in the automobile industry is I think quite different to managing a war, due to the very nature of war.

At the end of the movie I was left wondering if Mr. MacNamara having shared his lessons with us was himself out of the fog. With the less than favourable situation we presently find ourselves in in the world today, perhaps we are all still wandering about in the fog.The title of this movie is therefore quite fitting for both the MacNamara years and today as well. May 6, 2008

Good Transaction

Vendor delivered the DVD on time and as ordered. I would order from them again. April 26, 2008

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