The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)

The story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara.

Director:

Errol Morris

Stars:

Robert McNamara, John F. Kennedy, Fidel Castro

Won 1 Oscar. Another 12 wins & 16 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Robert McNamara	...	Self

Storyline

Former corporate whiz kid Robert McNamara was the controversial Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, during the height of the Vietnam War. This Academy Award-winning documentary, augmented by archival footage, gives the conflicted McNamara a platform on which he attempts to confront his and the U.S. government's actions in Southeast Asia in light of the horrors of modern warfare, the end of ideology and the punitive judgment of history.

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Plot Keywords:

secretary of defense | interview | vietnam | cold war | political superpower | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Biography | History | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for images and thematic issues of war and destruction

Did You Know?

Trivia

McNamara originally agreed to an hour-long interview for the Errol Morris PBS series, First Person (2000). The interview lasted eight hours and McNamara stayed for a second day of interviewing. He also returned months later, for two more days of interviews. Morris found himself with more than enough material for a feature-length documentary.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[Per contact at the Errol Morris Foundation, the date is 8/5/1964, and the clip is from Press Conference on The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, National Archives #111-LC-48220]
Robert McNamara: [archival footage from the press conference on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 5 August 1964] Is this chart at a reasonable height for you? Or do you want it lowered? All right. Earlier tonight - first let me ask the TV, are you ready? All set?

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Crazy Credits

Director of Officeland Security: Jackpot Junior

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Connections

Referenced in Uncle: Dinner, I Hardly Knew Her (2017)

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Soundtracks

Gulf of Tonkin
(uncredited)
by Philip Glass
Ocean Mountain Music

User Reviews

Grappling with a Difficult Film

If you possess an especially smug view of history's finality, this film may not do a great deal to impress you. For the rest of us, however, Errol Morris presents a truly complex picture of a clearly complex man.

Many of the reviews I read of the film complain that there doesn't seem to be a main point that emerges from the film or its eleven "lessons," which are admittedly too cute by half in many cases. The point, though, is the complexity itself. The point is that history is bigger than its main players, and inscrutably difficult to judge in a definitive moral sense. I don't think I will ever forget McNamara's probing, clearly emotional questioning of the rules of war or the lack thereof, when he discusses how one evening he and general Curtis LeMay decided to burn to death 100,000 people in the Tokyo firebombing. The portrait of McNamara, as well as the two presidents he served, is one of human beings through and through, with all the fallibility and conflictedness that entails. The central quandary of war emerges for the viewer to see: it is the business of killing people, and that means that mistakes cause people to die needlessly.

As I said, this film, taken in the right spirit, is deeply challenging. I would recommend it to anyone who has grappled with the enormity and awfulness of the history of the twentieth century.

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Classics [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 March 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Fog of War

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$41,449, 21 December 2003

Gross USA:

$4,198,566

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,038,841

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sony Pictures Classics, RadicalMedia, SenArt Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1