Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant insights
Review: Errol Morris's stunning documentary is about one of the 20th century's most significant players: Robert McNamara, who reprises the highlights of his life and professional career. The movie covers a lot of ground, including McNamara's stint as a Ford Motor Co. executive, his participation as a war planner in World War II, and his crucial involvement as secretary of defense under President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and under Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson during the Vietnam War. There are some stunning revelations, including his role in the firebombing of Japan, as well as the nuclear face-off between the United States and Cuba. This is another brilliant coup for Morris, the inspired documentarian who has made a career out of conversations with the most fascinating subjects. He tells a story that knocks you right off your feet.
Rating:
Summary: A Giant, Startling Vision
Review: This brilliant work by director Morris is the stuff of life. And death. It arouses the most basic moral and immoral questions of being human through an enormously complex and yet simple man, Robert Strange McNamara. It seems no coincidence, his middle name, as we get to know him in all his cleverness and contradictions. Morris subtly illuminates, literally through McNamara's eyes, what it means to have power over life and death. Like God. There is something almost spiritual in McNamara's eyes, edited against searing images of, well, graphs, statistics, memoranda, bursting firebombs and nuclear mushrooms, almost all rarely seen-before footage. The eyes are the soul of this film - McNamara's are a combination of supreme confidence and extreme doubt. But not only his eyes - for example, we see President Kennedy's eyes frozen in the lens as he tells the nation of imminent nuclear war in 1962, a look that would make a Marine shiver. This new interview technique ("interrotron" ) draws us into what? War? Peace? Honor? Life? Power? Evil? Born 85 years ago, McNamara is the quintessential man of his time, what Brokaw called the greatest generation, a sobriquet this documentary underscores. In McNamara's words he deplored the sorrow and pity of the four great wars of his lifetime; the trenches in France; the nuclear and indiscriminate firebombing of innocent Japanese; the debacle in Korea; the flaming jungles of Vietnam. His command of statistics is breathtaking. But it is the eyes that reveal an inner truth, the precise opposite of his concise, rational words - his 11 "lessons". We see a man who never found himself in harm's way. We see eyes so ironically blinded by a circa 1918 vision of duty and honor that, though he loathed the horrifics of Vietnam, he was compelled to allow his true judgment to go unexpressed until nearly 60,000 Americans were dead. He was at once perhaps the most powerful man in the world and its most despicable. It is easy to see why a brilliant young President Kennedy would choose someone as Defense Secretary who seemed so like himself, but tragically without the courage. And why, with Kennedy's death, McNamara by sheer ambition and brilliance would ascend to the very pinnacle of power. Yet, I couldn't hate this guy. Perhaps the most telling moment is McNamara's clear devastation at Kennedy's assassination 41 years ago, again told in his eyes and a rare, emotional choking voice. So it's difficult to blame him for all those deaths he might have prevented -- McNamara genuinely believed he was doing the right thing for his Presidents: through an obsessive sense of duty and loyalty. Now that his day of legacy approaches, he expresses criticism over the actions of others -- General LeMay and President Johnson are the favored targets. But McNamara cannot quite bring himself to admit his own mistakes of enormous proportions. Yet it's quite clear that he was one of only two men who could have ended the 7-year slaughter (of his term in office). Many may find that failure a reason to despise the man. I found it just human. This film offers up no easy answers (certainly not his 11 "lessons'), but more importantly raises many fundamental questions. Philip Glass' elegiac, edgy scoring perfectly meshes with this thriller. An impressive and important contribution to understanding our nation's ambivalent past.
Rating: 
Summary: I WAS GLUED (IT'S THAT GOOD) BUT THE CONCLUSIONS ARE LACKING
Review: Errol Morris' Interrotron recording device faces down its most controversial subject yet in "The Fog of War". This wonderful footage is culled from nearly 20 hours of interviews with Robert S. McNamara, US secretary of defence under JFK and Johnson and the reputed "architect" of the nam war. As the often cantankerous but well-spoken McNamara explains not so much his decisions as the contexts that produced those decisions -- as well as repeatedly saying that he's not going to talk about a particular subject, then talking about it anyway -- he dispels countless myths surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam and both of his commanders in chief. More than a portrait of a savvy (if ethically challenged) bureaucrat, Morris' documentary is a gripping survey of the last half-century of American politics and one that has much to say about the current administration's attitudes. Trust me, you're going to be glued to the screen. One minor gyp though. It's not really clear what inferences I should have drawn from the reflections other than that war is hell, or that we should all love each other ever after etc etc. While we are on the gripes section, perhaps I should also mention that given its candid cam type feel, the footage is occasionally a bit tough to watch. But that's just me. Watch this gem if you can. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, excellent film.
Review: What I liked most about this film is that it raises questions; your thoughts don't stop at the movie theater EXIT door. If this was Morris's aim, he succeeded. This documentary would make a great companion to a history class: I imagine when we read "Hiroshima" in 7th grade, how this would have spurned many philosophical and political discussions about the nature of war and the US's place in the world as the greatest superpower. The interview technique using the "Interrotron" was perfectly suited to Robert McNamara's expressive personality; McNamara is a fascinating figure whether you like him or not and though he is forthright on many accounts, he still leaves unanswered questions. Why exactly? There is more I'd like to know about that, but I think McNamara will take some of this to his grave. There are some great anecdotes and a few tearful moments, but I won't spoil--all I can say is that at one point I couldn't hold back streaming tears. I might mention, too, that though the editing of the 20+ hours of interviews with him is noticeable, it is verbally seamless. There is war footage I don't recall seeing before. I've already pre-ordered the DVD just to go back and slow-mo through some of the rapid-fire images of the incinerations of Japan, maps and taped conversations between JFK, LBJ and McNamara. Morris melds these images, along with some artful images of his own, to convey the recurring motif of domino theory. I could have handled another hour of this no problem. Being a longtime fan of Philip Glass, his scores don't overpower this film and matches each segment and mood well, whereas, say in "Koyaanisquatsi" his music seemed to be so much the movie itself. I recognized a piece from my 1987 record of his, "Dance Pieces," an excellent CD worth visiting. Glass's expertise at matching beautiful music to dropping bombs (which there are many frightening, yet hauntingly beautiful shots of in this film) is unparalled. This was a project of stellar collaboration. Glass's music is more subtle here, which is as it should be. I wish this was the most talked about film right now rather than Mel Gibson's "The Passion..." It's a shame it's not in the big theaters here--it's analogous timing couldn't be better. I'm really curious what Donald Rumsfeld would think of it, for wouldn't he be remiss not to see it? I hope this film gathers much momentum, especially in DVD. I had seen "Capturing The Friedmans" before the Oscars and was rooting for that, but I now see that the Oscar "The Fog Of War" received was well-earned.
Rating:
Summary: Candid First-Hand Account of Pivotal Events.
Review: As Secretary of Defense under both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Robert McNamara incurred the hatred of many Americans who opposed the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. In "The Fog of War", McNamara tells us what he learned about the conflicts of nations from his experience in the Pacific during World War II, his narrow avoidance of nuclear annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis while serving the Kennedy Administration, and his reluctant complicity in the escalation of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam under the Johnson Administration. This man who has long been viewed as an unyielding, heartless, number-cruncher by anti-war activists gives candid first-hand accounts of the successes and failures of America at war, what happened, why it did, and who was responsible. McNamara is articulate, intelligent, and forthright in discussing his involvement in pivotal events in U.S. history, from World War II to 1967, when his inability to reconcile his view of the Vietnam conflict with President Johnson's -or Johnson's inability to reconcile with his- ended his service to the administration. Through director Errol Morris' interviews with McNamara and lots of archival film footage and audio tape, "The Fog of War" follows Robert McNamara's life from childhood, through his youth, service in WWII, his success at Ford Motor Company, his seven-year incumbency as Secretary of Defense, his thirteen-year career at the World Bank, to his return to Vietnam in 1995. Morris asks McNamara some questions, but for the most part McNamara leads the conversation where he will and is able to communicate his feelings at the time events were taking place and the conclusions he has drawn in hindsight, which he hopes will help younger generations avoid the sometimes disastrous consequences of war to which he was a party. The "Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara" referred to in the film's title are not specifically the lessons which McNamara wished to impart. The Eleven Lessons are in part based on statements McNamara made and in part inferred by director Errol Morris. "The Fog of War" is a marvelous and important documentary. Robert McNamara's accounts and insights into so many of the Unite States' pivotal conflicts of the twentieth century are fascinating and invaluable. The DVD: As I mentioned, the Eleven Lessons in the film are not actually McNamara's lessons. "Robert McNamara's Ten Lessons" are available as a bonus feature introduced by McNamara. "Additional Scenes" includes 25 short scenes which didn't make the film's final cut, lasting 40 minutes total. These scenes include some interesting anecdotes and provide more insight into McNamara's personality, but they're not essential.
Rating: 
Summary: incoherent and pointless
Review: Robert McNamara's lessons are largely inapplicable to average people, unless the lesson is to be complacent, even in the face of genocidal war. After all, "you can't change human nature (one of the 'lessons')." Many of them, beyond being inapplicable, are incoherent. This film gives no significant insight into the Viet Nam era that you couldn't find elsewhere. Furthermore, McNamara's assumptions that America still, in 2004, accepts the official lies of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, insults our collective intelligence. For example, we know now that Kennedy was fully aware of the coup that ousted Ngo Dinh Diem before it happened, and supported it. We also know that the U.S. was in North Vietnamese territorial waters (not international waters) when the Gulf of Tonkin incident took place. Only when we accept the moral bankruptcy of the Viet Nam War and hold those responsible accountable (in a historical context at least) will we be rid of the "Viet Nam Sydrome" that polarizes Americans decades later. Apologists for genocide may impress the academy, but I personally don't have much use for it. If you want the good Viet Nam documentary of the year, buy the Weather Underground. It should have easily beat this film at the Oscars. I knew when the competition was between an establishment perspective and a radical perspective, the establishment would win, but a bomb in an empty building is much less criminal than millions of tons of bombs on peasant agrarian nations.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful historical statement
Review: This is an absolutely riviting documentary about one of the most important, and controversial, American personalities of the 20th century. It is impossible to be objective about this film; my reaction to it was totally colored by coming of age and being immersed in that era. McNamara was, for those of us alive in the 1960s, either a stone-cold intellectual genius, the perfect egghead CEO, a heartless calculating machine, or a war criminal. The beauty of Morris' film is he lets the prisoner tell his tale from the dock (kind of like "Swimming to Cambodia") and seemingly does not take sides. If the rules of karma hold sway, Mcnamara should be reborn as a bannana slug as he cheerfully excuses his responsibility for Vietnam - "only 20,000 were killed when I was in office - the rest happened later." Part of the problem with McNamara is he is the intellectual's intellectual, a hyper achiever who cut his teeth perfecting incindiary bombing of Japanese cities. His flair with numbers management drew him to revive Ford in the 1950s, and then his rise to true stardom as the brightest of Kennedy's intellectual lights. His adroit handling of the 1962 Cuban Crisis remains required reading in political science circles, and for that, he is justly proud in standing up to the Joint Chiefs as they sought to blow the lids off of missile silos. However, one gets the feeling his problem with nuclear war is simply one of degree and proportionality, not morality. The film prods him into his Vietnam disaster. "Mistakes were made" admits McNamara, but anyone expecting tears or even an apology are bound to be disappointed. Even in his advanced years, his overweaning ego is in full display, and even his self-criticism sounds like a daily Dow Jones summary. Herein lies the root of the problem, and the intense sadness when Johnson (the polar opposite of McNamara's East Coast brahmin) parts company with him. McNamara would claim that he scripts this film (the "eleven lessons") but the twelth, and unspoken lesson, is that of hubris. This is a must-see, essential Vietnam film, which will age far, far better than more contemporary documentaries like "Hearts and Minds." It is, alas, full of lessons the current administration has not heeded.
Rating:
Summary: Profound post mortem
Review: One of the key points I thought was McNamara's post mortem on Vietnam. That just because the US is the most powerful country on the earth - economically and militarily she does not have the right, nor is it in her own people's interest to use this power UNILATERALLY. And yet that is what the US has done in Iraq. By all means invade Iraq but convince the UN of the merits. Not only does this ensure decisions are properly thought through they lend legitimacy to military intervention.
Rating:
Summary: See it
Review: superlatives are superfluos for the FOW. One of the key points I thought was McNamara's post mortem on Vietnam. That just because the US is the most powerful country on the earth - economically and militarily she does not have the right, nor is it in her own people's interest to use this power UNILATERALLY. And yet that is what the US has done in Iraq. Get UN backing first as in the first Gulf war.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing but Leaves Questions Unresolved
Review: I enjoyed this film if only to see a Washington insider show some humility for once. However, I do wonder how much of the film was motivated by a need to find redemption as opposed to a genuine desire to talk about hard-won lessons. Unfortunately, many of McNamara's lessons were paid for by the lives of thousands of young men in the prime of their lives. I have to ask: Were thousands of years of history before Vietnam for naught? Was the high-IQ McNamara only able to learn the lesson of "empathy" through "hands-on" experimentation? If nothing else, McNamara has documented the potential danger of blindly following a liberal impulse - of thinking that you know better than the collected wisdom that has preceded you ... the idea that current events have no precedent and therefore history is silent at best. Unfortunately, it seems that "conservatives" may be equally incapable of humility and learning from the past as Bush's elective war with Iraq develops into a quagmire. When will idealists on both the left and the right get it through their heads that other human beings do not exist for their pleasure and experimentation?
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