Review of The Fog of War (2003) by Rich B — 16 Mar 2005

Fog of War (2003) - "We shall not cease from exploring, and at the end of our explorations, we will return to where we started and know the place for the first time." - T. S. Eliot.

An autobiographical documentary of Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense under President's Kennedy and Johnson, who was the first civilian to assert control over the Department of Defense. The film was constructed from file tapes, an interview with McNamara, 85 years old at the time, and phone interviews and was divided into eleven essential lessons. Haunting, McNamara - animated and colorful - unburdened his soul in the retelling, exploring moral issues of war in a way that was frighteningly compelling. Errol Morris directorship of the documentary is genius and behind his testimony played a beautiful score by Phillip Glass.

A brilliant man, McNamara was sensitive, emotional, but unapologetic. He inherited a terrifically complicated situation, previous wars in our history setting in motion consequences that played out in present and future wars, with enemies becoming gradually become more and more difficult to read. In the middle of his efforts, he lost Kennedy to an assassination, leaving him saddled with a understandably misguided Johnson, who exhibited character very similar to Bush (ah - that Texas swagger). McNamara's testimony spoke volumes about our history at war and, but extrapolation, made it quite clear that our venture into Iraq is nothing more than a terrible lesson already learned (Vietnam).