Errol Morris is the guy who made the greatest ads ever seen on TV, the famous Miller High Life commercials. I loved the camera movements and the faces. For this documentary film, Morris has achieved an incredible feat of film making: The camera moves without moving, the action unfolds off screen and still reaches new heights of tension and foreboding, and the special effects, what little they are, do what special effects generally are not meant to do, encourage deeper thought.
McNamara himself is both frightening and familiar. He is not a leader, he could never inspire people. Inspiration was left to men like Kennedy, with their eloquence and spirit. McNamara is no idealist, no fanatic, no genius. That was not his job, and he is above all a man who knows what his job was and is. McNamara is an artist of common sense, a man who can apply extreme sense, statistics and logic to solve a problem. In his case, the problem was foreign policy, or the application of incredible force to direct foreign policy.
In some ways, McNamara's cold logic is frightening, but he understands why it is frightening, and why others might view him as an extension of the evil that comes out of the force he applied. But, as man with common sense, he knows that. He is more of a philosopher than the German officers who claim they were only following orders, but he admits he was part of a mechanism that made so called evil decisions. Was there a limit to how far McNamara would go? The film kind of leaves that question up to the viewer.
McNamara's common sense and communication skills qualify him for a great interview. He does not play to the camera, backtrack his words, cover up, or simplify. He tells everything like it was. I'm not sure if I like him, but I wouldn't mind spending a couple hours firing questions at him. He'd probably get annoyed and storm away though.
The film contains unexpectedly good music and great film clips. The special effects, particularly the one showing numbers and statistics falling as bombs on a helpless city, are fascinating. The best scenes are in slow motion, as McNamara walks through a crowd, an old man moving past people who have no idea he was once the most powerful man on the planet.
McNamara himself is both frightening and familiar. He is not a leader, he could never inspire people. Inspiration was left to men like Kennedy, with their eloquence and spirit. McNamara is no idealist, no fanatic, no genius. That was not his job, and he is above all a man who knows what his job was and is. McNamara is an artist of common sense, a man who can apply extreme sense, statistics and logic to solve a problem. In his case, the problem was foreign policy, or the application of incredible force to direct foreign policy.
In some ways, McNamara's cold logic is frightening, but he understands why it is frightening, and why others might view him as an extension of the evil that comes out of the force he applied. But, as man with common sense, he knows that. He is more of a philosopher than the German officers who claim they were only following orders, but he admits he was part of a mechanism that made so called evil decisions. Was there a limit to how far McNamara would go? The film kind of leaves that question up to the viewer.
McNamara's common sense and communication skills qualify him for a great interview. He does not play to the camera, backtrack his words, cover up, or simplify. He tells everything like it was. I'm not sure if I like him, but I wouldn't mind spending a couple hours firing questions at him. He'd probably get annoyed and storm away though.
The film contains unexpectedly good music and great film clips. The special effects, particularly the one showing numbers and statistics falling as bombs on a helpless city, are fascinating. The best scenes are in slow motion, as McNamara walks through a crowd, an old man moving past people who have no idea he was once the most powerful man on the planet.