Rating: 
Summary: War Criminal
Review: How anyone can make a postive movie on Robert McNamara is beyond me. But again, he was one of Kennedy's best and the brightest so I guess that makes him a hero in the media and the entertainment world. It disgusts me that films are made portraying Henry Kissinger as a War Criminal and Robert McNamara is treated as a respected figure. McNamara started a ground war in Vietnam, used the ridiculous and arrogant graduated response policy which lost the war, condemned millions of people to concentration camps and death, and then announces thirty years later that he knew the war was doomed before it even started. The true lessons from the life of Robert McNamara are that he was an arrogant elitist who lied to the American people about the war. He even wrote a study about his lies called the Pentagon papers. The Fog of War is propaganda at its worst. If filmakers are going to attack Kissinger as a war criminal, then McNamara deserves at least as much criticism and not praise for his so-called lessons.
Rating: 
Summary: The best of Morris' movies
Review: I'm not a big Errol Morris fan. I find most of his docs contain too much of himself in them to be the truly objective works of art they strive to be. However, this is about Robert McNamara, a man who is bigger than life (love him or hate him, he is) and very little of that "Errol Morris" feeling seeps into this film to its benefit.I know this has been released at an opportune time, but this isn't Michael Moore confrontational tragi-comedy. This is a character study of one of the most interesting men of this century. A man who may well be (through his work during WWII and later in Vietnam) one of the greatest killers of the twentieth century. But it all depends on your perspective of his role and who he is as a man and that is what is truly great about this film. It does not offer any answers (much like the other great doc this year, Capturing the Freidmans) it only shows you the man. It shows you McNamara being arrogant, smug, proud, and obstinant, but it also shows you McNamara being genuinely apologetic, introspective, thoughtful and sympathetic. We are left with the final decision. We are given the facts. We are given the man, but we are asked to decide what we think and that is what makes this a significant documentary and a great film. Also, Morris' talking head style, with all of its awkwardness, really works well with this subject. His dramatization of nothing (maps and graphs and charts) is also probably the best and most compelling of any other documentary filmmaker. The found footage is awesome, as well as the found recordings with Johnson and Kennedy. On the DVD, watch the deleted scenes. It's another half an hour of McNamara and though I still can't decide whether he truly believed what he was doing was right, and should be looked upon lightly in the course of human history, or whether he should burn in hell, I could watch him talk forever. Who knew the most compelling drama of the year would be an Errol Morris talking head doc? But it is.
Rating: 
Summary: Not much "there" there
Review: Sorry for the cliche in my "title." I'm glad the film was made; it's certainly timely when the US is engaged in another adventure of dubious outcome (and which is stimulating hate of US worldwide.) Morris even used graphics I've considered in the past, e.g., reverse domino fall. That was clever and made a point. And the contexts of the wartime events, starting with earlier last century, proceeding through WWII, McNamara's contributions to Ford Motor Co., and how he was recruited to be Secretary of Defense, all were well done. There were implications rather than statements of what many a Vietnam vet shared with me, that the perversity of McNamara's stance, in both Ford and Vietnam--and this said something about the Kennedy administrations absorption in Harvard Business School ethics--was that it was reduced to numbers. Everyone had charts, inventories, graphs. In that sense everyone knew what "was happening." As a former colleague who was an army brat put it, "Using those figures, we'd won the war two years ago!" But where was the humanity? (Did McNamara run the World Bank the same way? That's something not addressed by the film.) The acknowledgement of the fiascoes that were the Maddox and the Turner Joy were far to superficial. McNamara acknowledges that the second alleged attack on the Maddox was based on the error or misjudgement of the ship's sonar men. But what about the plans the Pentagon had devised to get us into Vietnam before we did, ala the Pentagon Papers? What about OPLAN 34A? Too much missed there. Way too much. Is McNamara contrite? Well, it seems that way. One of my relatives once commented on McNamara's 1995 book "In Retrospect" (still available from Amazon.com), that he was singing his mea culpas. This film indicates that perhaps he really is/was opposed to the war, felt we shouldn't have been involved from the beginning. Finally, of the 11 lessons McNamara apparently learned, some were valuable. For example, keeping wartime actions "proportional" is a must. Morris used McNamara's rhetoric, comparing the proportion of the population of Japaneses cities who were killed to US cities of a similar size was well done, and superbly graphically illustrated. But some seem to disregard solutions. And that's something left unresolved. For instance, we shouldn't rely on rationality. Then on what should we rely? Some bordered on justifying McNamara's stands. Again, I'm happy the film was released now, and happier that Morris won the academy award for it. But the film will do better to stimulate some discussion than to provide any answers, or to correlate McNamara's present observations with what's going on today. And that I regret.
Rating:
Summary: Where are the reparations?
Review: MacNamara maybe sorry for his and America's illegal war here in in Vietnam, but where is the action to follow the words? Who remembers the Paris Peace Accords? Nixon agreed to pay Vietnam $3.5 bn for reparations in 1973. It was blocked by Congress. Today the amount is around $14 bn and should be paid by America. Since the war ended for America in 1975, over 60,000 innocent Vietnamese people have been killed by unexploded ordnance. Yet America has done little. Justice? not yet for Vietnam "We were wrong" - ok, do something about it
Rating:
Summary: Building cars/managing humanity
Review: The DVD shows why corporate geniuses are not always geniuses in public office. The man 'understood' the Vietnam war in 'input and output' terms. Up to this day, he cannot bring himself to look into the abys and recognize all the suffering that this managerial qualities brought onto the Vietnamese people. A man eager to 'serve' and dishonest with his legacy.
Rating:
Summary: Tremendous
Review: Fog of War, a film I first saw having heard nothing about but saw randomly, is a brilliant work by Morris. On a repeat viewing, the lessons by McNamara held no less poignancy nor emotion. Although in the latter half of the film the pacing starts to drag a bit, I would not change it--the pacing is the way it is simply because it is material that must be absorbed, realized, internalized, and chewed on. Having recently read A Rumor of War, by Philip Caputo in addition to a good, if dense history of the war by George Herring, it made watching Fog of War all the better. Highly recommended--both the man, and the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Devastating
Review: The Fog of War is one of those movies everyone should be required to see. McNamara is in many ways found to be an enigma, but Morris doesn't pass judgement on him. Nor should we. The content and construction of the film puts it in masterwork territory. The Fog of War is a film that will never be forgotten.
Rating:
Summary: An Important Voice on the Record
Review: Some anti-Vietnam War critics who disagreed strongly with the policies of Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson have criticized Errol Morris's Oscar-winning documentary for allowing certain statements of the controversial Washington bureaucrat to stand unchallenged rather than present a rebuttal or at least other viewpoints. A better way to view this documentary is to consider it as one of an ongoing series of oral history presentations assisting us in understanding the vital issues of war and peace. What makes this documentary so gripping is that McNamara is confronted with important questions by producer Errol Morris in a spontaneous exchange, and must come to grips with them before an audience seeking responses. He is still visibly shaken over his role in the Vietnam conflict and concedes that he was ultimately forced out by Johnson due to policy differences rather than resigning of his own accord. In the manner of Washington tradition for the lavish, he was given a grand sendoff ceremony by the man who was dumping him for policy differences. Despite the fact that McNamara does not answer the pivotal question of, as stated in his autobiography, if he ultimately knew that he was sending off troops to a war he knew could not be won why he continued to do it, his uncertainty allows us to study the all too frequent response of someone under pressure, unable to take the ultimate step to free body and soul. As a result McNamara continues to agonize, aware that he was sending young men to die in a war he knew would never result in victory. He can never know, for instance, the peace and resolution that someone like Richard Goodwin, who concedes that Johnson had treated him like a son, could know for resigning in spite of pressures due to his strong opposition to Vietnam. Another fascinating point in the film is the discussion of how close America came to war in the Cuban Missile Crisis. McNamara provides enormous credit to then Russian Ambassador Llewelyn Thompson for engineering a ploy that helped avert nuclear conflict. Thompson publicly disagreed with President Kennedy and, due to his close involvement with and knowledge of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev,recommended that he respond to the first of two communiques sent to the Russian leader, the first much more conciliatory than its blustery successor. While the clever ploy has been cited in other works on Kennedy and the period, the showcasing of Thompson's role in the decision provides important addendum to the record. It is to be hoped that Errol Morris will continue in the same vein as "Fog of War" in approaching the historical record by confronting individuals who helped shape it with important questions designed to illuminate the public. A chlling element of this film is when on the scene Cold War active policy participant McNamara states bluntly that the only reason we avoided nuclear war was by being just plain lucky.
Rating:
Summary: Mandatory Viewing
Review: I get a bit of chuckle seeing the way 'Fog of War' gets listed on amazon.com..."Starring: Fidel Castro, John F. Kennedy, et al.". Ignore that. This movie is all about Robert S. McNamara, and - to an even greater extent - the vision of brilliant documentary specialist Errol Morris and his capable crew. To get an appreciation of Morris' skill, I suggest you check out "Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary." Great story, but - for the most part - the impact of it is diluted by a botched production. In 'Fog,' you get the complete package: a compelling subject (love him or loathe him, McNamara (...) compelling viewing); seamless editing; pitch-perfect historical images to match the stories; Morris' wonderful 'falling domino' imagery; and (especially) Phillip Glass' extraordinary soundtrack. Morris and his team have thrown the equivalent of a perfect game here. One image that sticks with me (others have noted it here as well): a heavy-lidded JFK is about to give the nation a briefing on the Cuban Missile Crisis. He stares blankly into the camera. For a second I thought Morris had frozen the image. Suddenly, the frozen Kennedy blinks. Morris stays with the image longer. Glass' eerie music builds in the background. Kennedy slowly blinks again. A great cinematic moment by a great filmmaker. 'Fog of War' is filled with moments like these.
Rating:
Summary: Fog of War
Review: This documentary is the latest in a series of works that seek to lay bare the mind of LBJ's Secretary of Defense, architect of the Vietnam War. Virtually the entire film is a closeup of McNamara staring into the camera and talking...expurgating his innermost thoughts and emotions about not only his role in executing the Vietnam War, but also the demons he harbors as a result of his part in the burning to death of thousands of Japanes civilians during World War II bombing raids. (He goes so far as to volunteer that, had the Allies lost the war, he, LeMay and others would have been tried as war criminals.) Because the camera lense is mounted on the monitor into which McNamara is looking at his interviewer, his gaze points straight ahead at us, creating an intensely personal experience. His eyes and expression reveal as much as his words. That is to say, volumns. This film is a must-see for anyone seeking to better his or her understanding of the Vietnam era. It is also an intimate look inside the psyche of a haunted and guilt-wracked man, a man whom God has seen fit to sentence to a long life contemplating his actions from so many years ago.
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