The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
by Errol Morris
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DVD details
Actor: Robert McNamaraDirector: Errol Morris
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-05-11
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
DVD Review: Fog of War
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the most entertaining, inexpensive and painless history lesson you'll ever get on the 20th Century. It's also Errol Morris's best documentary, in my opinion. True, the Thin Blue Line is terrific but I think this is his best. If you wish you were smarter you might want to wish again. This is the story of Robert McNamara: the brightest and the best of his or any age who found himself villified beyond what was reasonable or deserving. Still, he calmly made no excuses while talking candidly about doing what needed to be done. "We killed fifty-thousand men, women and children in one night over Tokyo," he said with a straight face. This is a great film and as close a look at one of the men who lived in the midst of the greatest focal points of the century you'll ever see.DVD Review: You feel like you're speaking with McNamara directly
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is absolutely incredible. You feel like you're in the room, directly communicating with McNamara. Its really amazing to observe him relate his experiences; even in his 80s, his incredible intelligence, arrogance and colored memory of past events shines through brilliantly. I especially enjoyed the way the movie wove through history chronologically. DVD Review: Great documentary JFK and LBJ's SECDEF McNamara WWII Vietnam War
Summary: 5 Stars
This BBC / PBS -like political biographical documentary film shows how US Presidential cabinets are formed and the impact of decisions on foreign affairs at the highest level. Director Errol Morris portrays 85-yr old Robert McNamara, then Secretary of Defense for 7 years during partial JFK and LBJ terms (61-68, fired just after the Tet Offensive). Dialog and supporting screenplay maintains a sensitive, dramatic, and interesting talking head portrait for 1 1/2 hrs on DVD. The brilliantly crafted retrospective McNamara's involvement in the WWII (41-45), Korean and Cold (47-91) and Vietnam War (59-75) 35-yrs ago against the communist arch-nemeses PRChina and USSR within the context of the SE Asian Domino theory.
The Errol Morris film won the 2004 Oscar for best documentary. Box office gross was $5M. Having also read the book with same title by Blight and Lang, this Reviewer strongly recommends the DVD over the book, as the book contains less than half of McNamara's theses.
To date, over 14 Sec'ty of Defense have shaped world conflicts within 9 administrations; JBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, GHW Bush, Clinton, GW Bush and Obama; covering troops in Somalia (92-95), Yugoslavia (93-96), Afganistan (01-pres), and Iraq (03-pres), among scores of other conflict involving less than a thousand troops or 25 aircraft. The CIA has covert actions that are on-going in the PLO, Iran and Venezuela. (Ref: Wiki List_of_United_States_military_history_events and also CIA_sponsored_regime_change)
Clearly the hot seat has been on successive SECDEFs Melvin Laird and Jim Schlesinger during the defeat of the Vietnam War; Dick Cheney and Bill Perry during Somalia and Yugoslavia; and Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates during Afghanistan and Iraq.
As the US / Obama is currently trying to recover from a major global recession, viewing this retrospective would give insights on the dilemma that faces the current cabinet and policy towards Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea. After witnessing Obama's first 100 days, his tour in E Euro and Latin America and Sec'ty of State Clinton in Mexico, the Middle and Far East shows that this is a major policy shift from the 8-yr former G.W. Bush administration, including SECDEF Donald Rumsfeld and SECSTATE Condoleezza Rice.
So far SECDEF Robert Gates is going along with the draw down of Iraq with a simultaneous increase in Afghanistan. Advanced technology with use of remotely controlled drone surveillance and combat aircraft will reduce the number of troops in harms way.
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What was especially poignant in the film is the admission that Army Air Corp General LeMay and SECDEF McNamara could have been charged as War Criminals if the US had lost the war. Both sanctioned fire-bombing of more than 60 of Japan's entire cities taking military targets and factories, as well as civilian commercial and residential districts in-toto, totaling over a quarter million civilians deaths. The two atomic bomb deaths include an additional quarter million civilians.
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Below are McNamara's on truths and lessons. If you have a fast internet connection, you can view the following video clips of movie using the YouTube URL address.
#1 Empathize with Your Enemy (Scene 4, 0:06, wOoOcIFhaoA) Nuclear missiles in Cuba
#2 Rationality Will Not Save Us (Scene 6, 0:16)
#3 There's something beyond one's self (Scene 9 0:25) b1916, end of WWI, flu epidemic, went to college during Depression, Cal BA, Economics; Harvard, Grad Sch Biz. Joined Prof Harvard.
#4 Maximize efficiency (Scene 11, 0:30)
Attended OCS at Harvard. In USArmy Air Corps for 3yrs. Prepared WWII R&D in Pacific. Abort Mission report, pilot fear. WWII B-29 bombing over Japan, with 58th bomb wing from India, Burma. LeMay moves airfield to Mariana Islands, Guam, Saipan, Tinian. Target Destruction efficiency. Fire bombing of Tokyo 100K civilians, looses one Wingman.
#5 Proportionality shouldn't be a guideline in War (Scene 13, 0:39, PzUStZaTGAQ).
Incendiary bombs of Tokyo, Yokohama, Toyama, Nagoya, and 60 other cities. The nuclear bomb under LeMay command and Truman. McNamara contracted polio on VJ Day.
#6 Get the Data (Scene 16, 0:48)
Ford no college grads (Life Magazine) created Ford Mktg Research Dept, devel budget cars against Volkwagen and GM /Cadillac. Start crash protecting cars with Cornell Aeronautical Labs, packaging, intro seatbelts.
Robert F Kennedy, (contract, no DC Society scene commitment, Sec'ty Defense $25K/yr), personal sacrifice leaving Ford.
Return from S Vietnam review 1963 with 16K Advisors, military coup Diem and Kennedy assassination. Ironically Kennedy was escorted by DC's National Cemetery Groundkeeper couple weeks before; McNamara picked same spot (tears). Newly elevated Pres L.B. Johnson, with lack of VN understanding, continued under the SE Asia Domino theory by China in 1964.
#7 Belief and Seeing are Both Often Wrong (Scene 18, 1:05, pbJLwk-bJaA, W5j0r4QyZeo)
NVN Gun boats vs Destroyer Maddox DD731 suspect torpedo attacks near Haiphong in Aug 1964. Analysis of sonar recordings eventually show wrong conclusion; this was just a pretext to engage. Retaliation from NVN aggression results in 64 bombing missions against NVN. We see what we want to believe. Tonkin Gulf Resolution, Congress approval to engage Sept 64. Johnson authorizes "Rolling Thunder" bombing B-57s. Marine deployment 10Jun1965, 45K men, 10 battalions.
#8 Be Prepared to Re-examine Your Reasoning (Scene 21, 1:20, PnfI-lW_asw)
In a 1995 retrospective, McNamara asked NVN Generals what were goals for 1968 Tet Offensive; independence from CN, FR, and Amer colonialists. VN was in a Civil War to unify the country under Ho Chi Minh.
#9 In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil (Scene 23, 1:25, LxntnXjfG4I) Moral good is a tough decision.
#10 Never say never (Scene 25, 1:30). Never answer the question that was asked of you. Answer the question that you would have wished had been asked of you. Start Operation Birmingham Nov 67, Lexington, etc; with 500K troops, 25K KIA
#11 You can't change human nature. (Scene 27, 1:39) One makes errors in judgment.
DVD Review: Left out SOMETHING HUGE
Summary: 5 Stars
What is so dishonest, disingenuous and in every way 'the wave of the big brother American Marxist future' is ONE SIMPLE FACT left out of this otherwise notable documentary:
3,000,000 Laotians, Cambodians and Vietnamese (through Pol Pot, etc) died at the hands of Communist regimes after we pulled out.
Somehow the sanctimonious second-guessers from the Left ALWAYS LEAVE THAT OUT!
DVD Review: Fog of War is -Clearly- Remarkable
Summary: 4 Stars
Few figures in our shared history hold such a tragic place as Robert S. McNamara who served during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Even fewer ever manage to find redemption. Here, in this very well-made documentary, Mr. McNamara does exactly that---finds redemption as he carefully analyzes the situation as it then existed between the U.S. and Vietnam, takes an honest look in the mirror (at his personal role in the foreign policy committments of the period), and shares his thoughts with us, the American public. And that is what's striking: there are so few people in politics who would ever examine the course taken and PUBLICALLY address mistakes that had been made: this is what we did, this is why we did it, these are the results of the actions we took, and---hindsight always being clearer than what we experience "in the moment"---this is what we can learn from the past. It is in this last respect, in learning from the past, where the subject of this caring documentary shines as extraordinarily valuable!
The raw honesty of the situation should commend Mr. McNamara to anyone willing to listen. Not because he asks us for forgiveness---because he wants us to learn from it, to gain understanding. Mr. McNamara realizes that the past has something to offer us. And we should give well-deserved applause to the director, Errol Morris, for a job very well done. His contribution to our understanding of a terribly difficult period in American history is invaluable.
Description of The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
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: Pg13The 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
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