DVD : The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 9781404941663
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1404941665
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: May 11, 2004
Running Time: 95 minutes
Sales Rank: 3759
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2004-02
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The story of america as seen through the eyes of former secretary of defense robert mcnamara. One of the most controversial & influential figures in world politics he takes us on an insiders journey through many of the seminal events of the 20th century. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/13/2008 Starring: Robert Mcnamara Run time: 107 minutes Rating: Pg13
Amazon.com:
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
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Robert MacNamara was a major advisor and player in the Cold War. He advised Presidents Kennedy and Johnson on the Cold War, the Bay of Pigs and the Vietnam War. He has great insight into what happened and why it happened. He admits mistakes were made and that he had to support things he did not feel comfortable with also. In dealing with Castro, he found a man who would have allowed the use of nuclear weapons even if Cuba had been destroyed. With the North Vietnamese, he found people who thought the Americans were colonizers and mystified by the idea that Americans thought the Vietnamese were pawns of the Chinese. One look at their history would have told them that was not so! MacNamara does not flinch from mistakes but he also doesn't believe that things could have gone any other way. He points out what Americans believed and how they thought at the time. He admits that hindsight helps him understand a lot now but he certainly didn't have it when events were happening. Errol Morris provides a fair and balanced documentary for MacNamara. It is also a work of art and has its own form of suspense. A very good work by a wonderful director.
Rating: -
Admittedly I do not know enough about RSM or history to give an insightful review or to convey some clever details I may have discerned in the film. However, I can say that this movie has had a profound affect on me and the way I do see that period of history as well as other periods of history and let me explain why. A dark aura pervades most sections of this film, even when it seems a victory for McNamara's side he still seems to convey a sense of guilt and moral turpitude for his actions and all parties involved, most notably the fire bombings of Japan and the Vietnam War. Even when RSM describes the Cuban missile crisis and the path the U.S. trod to end the crisis peaceably, he still seems hung up on the tenuousness regarding how close millions of lives were brought to an end.
I have watched this film several times now, for I pick up new perspectives every viewing, and I am never comfortable with the outcomes of any situation RSM was a part of, not due to his personal involvement per se, but the fact the thought processes and decisions of a select few individuals can render such harm to so many.
I am not suggesting absolutism here, especially in a political climate such as the U.S. where the leadership structure plus philosophies are always shifting, but one group does not have to be in power for long to generate massive overhauls of advancing action that can tie up nations and cost literally millions of lives and trillions of dollars. It is this ... Read More
Rating:  -
Director Errol Morris starts his DVD by questioning Robert McNamara, the only person in view. McNamara begins to reminisce over his decades of experience. This is where the eleven lessons begin. Considering the political and military course of action the United States has taken in the past eight years, some of these lessons should be bronzed, and prominently displayed. Here are the ones that stuck most in my memory:
Empathize with your enemy.
Critics mistake empathy for sympathy or appeasement--a word most often misused. It means neither. Understanding your enemy is one of the most important things in defeating your enemy, or not engaging him in the first place. The example given by McNamara was the one person during the Cuban missile crisis who knew Premier Nikita Khruschev. He was the only one who counselled JFK against getting tougher with the Soviets. He knew that the US had to throw a political bone to Khruschev so that he would look tough against the Americans, at least to the hard core communists in the Politburo. It worked and nuclear war was averted.
Rationality will not save us.
There is a mistaken assumptions that if you gather rational people in one place to think rationally, they will always make the best decision or come up with the best course of action. According to McNamara, even rational people can make egregious errors in judgment.
Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
A lack of ... Read More
Rating: -
haunting...
McNamara murders hundreds of thousands during his career, and then finds a way to forgive himself anyway.
A must see, that is well shot and scored, unique, and worth watching multiple times.
Rating:  -
McNamara is clearly spinning history and running from his ghosts. I once read that he was known for simply making up any 'facts' he needed.
His comment in the film that "None of our allies supported us (in Vietnam)" would come as a surprise to South Korea,Thailand,Australia,New Zealand and the Philippines - all of whom had troops in Vietnam.
He claims to have opposed the consensus of military leaders to bomb Cuba during the missile crisis, but then goes along with them for their recommendations of the conduct of the Vietnam war - saying later that he should have spoken up. This is a man who wants to have it both ways - and always be on the right side in the judgment of history - or so he thinks.
His reflections on the bombing of Japan are also somewhat curious. He neglects to mention that the Japanese civilians were warned by the US Air Force to evacuate 26 cities - but their leadership cynically dispersed the wartime industries into the residential areas and kept the civilians there. The Japanese government was to blame for what happened to their civilians - just as they were to blame for war crimes committed by Japanese troops. Taking events out of historical context - as McNamara frequently does - is the mark of someone who is trying to explain away actions at the time in order to conform to current political correctness.
The documentary is technically excellent - but having other voices to contradict McNamara on his many self ... Read More
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