Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3776 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-08-23
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 107 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 Lyndon B Johnson'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

On the DVD The Fog of War DVD piles on 24 additional scenes (38 minutes total). They're short and random, but those interested in the film will find it worthwhile to hear McNamara discuss what it was like to work with JFK and who he feels was ultimately responsible for Vietnam. There's also a text-only list entitled "Robert S. McNamara's 10 Lessons," which he introduces by saying that the 11 lessons in the movie were not his own. Some of them, however, are not that different (movie lesson no. 1: "Empathize with your enemy." McNamara lesson no. 9: "If we are to deal effectively with terrorists around the globe, we must develop a sense of empathy--I don't mean 'sympathy,' but rather 'understanding'--to counter their attacks on us and the Western world."). --David Horiuchi

Synopsis
Documentarian Errol Morris directs THE FOG OF WAR, a captivating look at Robert S. McNamara, who served as the Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The movie does not exclusively focus on this part of McNamara's career, however, and instead gives a broad overview of the man he was, his multitude of roles--a Harvard Business School graduate, a Colonel in the Air Force during WWII, president of Ford Motor Company--and his opinions on a variety of historical topics. Inspired by two books written by McNamara--IN RETROSPECT (1995) and WILSON'S GHOST (2001)--Morris gives McNamara a forum to talk about the decisions he made and the influence he had during his career. At the age of 85, McNamara has gained necessary perspective to do just that. Sharp as a tack, loaded with charisma, and generally fascinating, McNamara easily carries the film with his revealing interviews. Meanwhile, Morris's use of archival footage--along with maps and other effective visual aids--add context to McNamara's commentary, and Philip Glass's ominous pulsing score gives the film's important subject matter the gravity it deserves.

Customer Reviews

so that's what they're like ?
Ever wondered what those chaps are like who make enormous decisions that radically effect tens of thousands of lives... watch and learn.

Easing the conscience of McNamara
This film is very important in various aspects. One of the most influential men in the history of US clears his conscience by this documentary. He is a very intelligent person, a rising star in the entrepreneurship. He enlists in the army. He is part of a team in the US Air Force making statistical calculations how to kill more efficiently! He does not refuse this fact in the film. He professes 11 commandments, nothing unknown what so ever. The director plays his part and doesn't ask hard questions. McNamara states clearly that he doesn't answer the questions anyhow, he says what he wants to anyway.

The changing of the US foreign policy between the offices of Kennedy and Johnson is shocking. Lyndon johnson carefully creates the path from pulling the troops from Vietnam strategy to committing in a total war in Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson is only the tip of the iceberg. Kennedy's assassination, the fictional bombing of the US ship by North Korea to be used as a pretext, the coup in South Vietnam are all pieces of a big puzzle.The "wise" McNamara is easily convinced he has to change too. He is a modern war-lord in civilian suit.

For me he is a brave men but a con man. He cold bloodedly describes the Japanese Front in the World War 2, the Missile Crisis in Cuba and the Vietnam conflict. Brave because he faces the music by going back to places he would be least welcome such as Cuba and Vietnam. He is con because he says he is a human and all humans make mistake! You can not fool history mister, lives of thousands of humans are not so cheap! In the film there is a quotation from Curtis Le May. He suggested bombing of Cuba during the Missile Crisis and he wroke havoc all major Japanese cities by incendinary bombs long before the A-bomb. He says that if the US had lost the War they would be treated as war criminals. Yes sir. You are war criminals and should be treated as such!

Note: A book named "Race Against the Enemy" carefully analyses the reasons behind nuclear bombing of Japan, concluding that it is the entry of Soviet Union into the Pacific Theater that led to the acursed bombings.

Fascinating
This fascinating film by legendary documentarian Errol Morris is subtitled "Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara," and if we can't learn something from McNamara's life, then we can't learn anything. This man was present at some of the pivotal moments of 20th century history. He was a key adviser to the military man who bombed the hell out of Japan before the A-bombs were even dropped. He revived Ford Motor Company in the 1950s. He was at President Kennedy's side during the Cuban missile crisis. He picked the site of Kennedy's grave. And he was the civilian head of the U.S. military during the first several years of the Vietnam war. After decades of public silence, McNamara opens up amazingly for Morris, apparently wanting to record his observations and judgments for posterity while his mind is still sharp as a tack. Morris obviously approached his subject with an agenda, but to his credit he doesn't ambush McNamara the way, say, Michael Moore would have. In the end, the portrait of McNamara that emerges is that of a brainy whiz kid who approaches every job as a problem-solving opportunity. He is pressed about feelings of guilt for the deaths caused by his roles in World War II and Vietnam, but he seems reconciled to the fact the sometimes one has to commit a lesser evil in order to head off a greater evil. The portrait of Lyndon Johnson that emerges, on the other hand, is devastating. As described by McNamara, LBJ was a man who knew full well that his Vietnam strategy couldn't work but was too stubborn and prideful to change course. (McNamara resigned as secretary of defense when LBJ declined to respond to his memo recommending a pullout.) Years later, we learn, McNamara met with his opposite number in Vietnam and was surprised to learn that the Vietnamese did not regard the war as a senseless tragedy that should have been avoided (the prevailing view in America) but as a worthwhile war of liberation. That is why one of McNamara's key rules is that you need to be able to "empathize" with your enemy