Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersEmmysSTARmeter AwardsSan Diego Comic-ConNew York Comic-ConSundance Film FestivalToronto Int'l Film FestivalAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

The Fog of War

Original title: The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
  • 20032003
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 1h 47m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
24K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
16,004
290
The Fog of War (2003)
Home Video Trailer from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Play trailer2:07
2 Videos
10 Photos
DocumentaryBiographyHistory
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.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.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.
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
24K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
16,004
290
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Errol Morris
    • Stars
      • Robert McNamara
      • John F. Kennedy(archive footage)
      • Fidel Castro(archive footage)
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Errol Morris
    • Stars
      • Robert McNamara
      • John F. Kennedy(archive footage)
      • Fidel Castro(archive footage)
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 166User reviews
    • 132Critic reviews
    • 87Metascore
    • Won 1 Oscar
      • 14 wins & 16 nominations total

    Videos2

    The Fog of War
    Trailer 2:07
    The Fog of War
    The Fog of War
    Trailer 2:08
    The Fog of War

    Photos10

    Robert McNamara in The Fog of War (2003)
    Robert McNamara in The Fog of War (2003)
    Errol Morris in The Fog of War (2003)
    Robert McNamara in The Fog of War (2003)
    Errol Morris and Robert McNamara in The Fog of War (2003)
    Robert McNamara in The Fog of War (2003)
    The Fog of War (2003)
    The Fog of War (2003)
    The Fog of War (2003)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Robert McNamara
    Robert McNamara
    • Self
    John F. Kennedy
    John F. Kennedy
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    Fidel Castro
    Fidel Castro
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    Richard Nixon
    Richard Nixon
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    Barry Goldwater
    Barry Goldwater
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    Lyndon B. Johnson
    Lyndon B. Johnson
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    Nikita Khrushchev
    Nikita Khrushchev
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    Curtis LeMay
    Curtis LeMay
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    Errol Morris
    Errol Morris
    • Interviewer
    • (voice)
    • (uncredited)
    Harry Reasoner
    Harry Reasoner
    • Self - TV interviewer
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    Franklin D. Roosevelt
    Franklin D. Roosevelt
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    • (voice)
    • (uncredited)
    Woodrow Wilson
    Woodrow Wilson
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Errol Morris
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    The Thin Blue Line
    8.0
    The Thin Blue Line
    The Unknown Known
    7.0
    The Unknown Known
    Standard Operating Procedure
    7.4
    Standard Operating Procedure
    American Dharma
    7.0
    American Dharma
    Bowling for Columbine
    8.0
    Bowling for Columbine
    The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
    8.0
    The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
    Hoop Dreams
    8.3
    Hoop Dreams
    Weiner
    7.6
    Weiner
    Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
    7.1
    Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
    Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
    7.6
    Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
    Capturing the Friedmans
    7.7
    Capturing the Friedmans
    Grizzly Man
    7.8
    Grizzly Man

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The "Eleven Lessons" listed in the film are as follows:
      • 1. Empathize with your enemy.
      • 2. Rationality will not save us.
      • 3. There's something beyond one's self.
      • 4. Maximize efficiency.
      • 5. Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
      • 6. Get the data.
      • 7. Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
      • 8. Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
      • 9. In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
      • 10. Never say never.
      • 11. You can't change human nature.
    • Goofs
      Whilst McNamara is talking about American industrial capacity, a montage is shown of stock footage. It includes Sherman tanks on a manufacturing line and three bladed propellers. However, the last bit of footage isn't American - it is footage of T-34 tanks being manufactured in the Soviet Union.
    • Quotes

      Robert McNamara: I'm not so naive or simplistic to believe we can eliminate war. We're not going to change human nature any time soon. It isn't that we aren't rational. We are rational. But reason has limits. There's a quote from T.S. Eliot that I just love: "We shall not cease from exploring, and at the end of our exploration, we will return to where we started, and know the place for the first time." Now that's in a sense where I'm beginning to be.

    • Crazy credits
      Director of Officeland Security: Jackpot Junior
    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Cheaper by the Dozen/The Company/Calendar Girls/Big Fish/The Fog of War (2003)
    • Soundtracks
      100,000 People
      (uncredited)

      by Philip Glass

      Ocean Mountain Music

    User reviews166

    Review
    Top review
    9/10
    Fascinating and Compelling
    Educated in the best Ivy League schools, successful leaders in the business world, they were the best and the brightest, the core of John F. Kennedy's administration. They came to office in 1961 with high hopes that the world would become a better place. When they left, these expectations lay shattered amidst the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam. Considered the architect of what came to be known as "McNamara's War", Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense under both Kennedy and Johnson, was one of the brightest but had the reputation of being aloof and arrogant. This public image, however, may not have been the whole story. In the fascinating Oscar-nominated documentary, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, Dr. Death) interviews the now 86-year old Defense Secretary in an effort to come to terms with what led to the quagmire of Vietnam and reveals a more complex, even strangely sympathetic man.

    Interspersed with archival footage, actual news broadcasts, and tape-recorded conversations from the period, the interview documents McNamara's personal account of his involvement with American policy from WW II to the 1960s. Culled from 20 hours of tape, the interview is separated into eleven segments corresponding to lessons learned during his life such as "Empathize with your enemy", and "Rationality will not save us". The Secretary does not apologize for the war, saying he was only trying to serve an elected President but is willing to admit his mistakes. He says that he now realizes the Vietnam conflict was considered by the North Vietnamese to be a civil war and that they were fighting for the independence of their country from colonialism, (something opponents of the war had been trying to tell him for over five years). Morris never undercuts McNamara's dignity or pushes him into a corner yet also does not slide troubling questions under the rug and there are some questions McNamara does not want to discuss.

    Though his reputation is that of a hawk, previously unheard tape-recorded conversations between McNamara and both Presidents reveal that he urged caution and opposed the continued escalation of the Vietnam War. In 1964, we hear Johnson say. "I always thought it was foolish for you to make any statements about withdrawing, but you and the President thought otherwise, and I just sat silent." McNamara also discusses his role in World War II, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his accomplishments as President of the Ford Motor Company. In talking about Cuba, he reveals how close the world came to nuclear annihilation, saved only by the offhand suggestion by an underling. McNamara repeats over and over again, demonstrating with his fingers, how close we all came to nuclear war. He talks openly about his involvement in World War II under General Curtis Le and how he helped plan the firebombing of 67 Japanese cities including Tokyo in which 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed. In a startling admission, he says that if the allies had not won the war, both he and Le May could have been tried as war criminals.

    Mr. McNamara has spoken out a bit late to save the lives of 50,000 Americans and several million Vietnamese but at least he has spoken and we can learn from his reflections. Though the Secretary does not apologize for the war, saying he was only trying to serve an elected President, to his credit he has looked at the corrosiveness of war and what it does to the human soul and we are left with the sense of a man who has come a long way. While his lesson that "In order to do good, one may have to do evil" sounds suspiciously like "the end justifies the means", his sentiments are clear that the U.S. should never invade another country without the support of its friends and allies. He says, "We are the strongest nation in the world today", he says, "and I do not believe we should ever apply that economic, political or military power unilaterally. If we'd followed that rule in Vietnam, we wouldn't have been there. None of our allies supported us. If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better re-examine our reasoning." A valuable lesson indeed.
    helpful•76
    8
    • howard.schumann
    • Feb 9, 2004

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 5, 2004 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Sony Classics (United States)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • The McNamara Project
    • Filming locations
      • California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Sony Pictures Classics
      • RadicalMedia
      • SenArt Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $4,198,566
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $41,449
      • Dec 21, 2003
    • Gross worldwide
      • $5,038,841
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 47 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    The Fog of War (2003)
    Top Gap
    By what name was The Fog of War (2003) officially released in India in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    View list
    List
    New & Upcoming Superhero Movies and Series
    See the full list
    View list
    List
    Fall TV Guide: The Best Shows Coming This Year
    See the full list
    View image
    Photos
    These Stars Are on the Rise
    See the gallery

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Back to top
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more access
    Sign in for more access
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Interest-Based Ads
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2022 by IMDb.com, Inc.