We helped choose the title of this movie in a Morris questionnaire at an advance screening at Brown U. in 2002. My title was "The Wars of Robert McNamara", since it is about his inner travail and guilt even at the murderous bombing raids of Japan, where we were killing 50-100,000 a pop in the 1000 plane firebomb raids for the last 8 months. I remember seeing the statistics and being stunned- Americans had become scientists of death. The title "Fog of War" is pretty hackneyed. The movie is a brilliant haunting evocative look at McNamara's life and tortures in the powerful positions he held. The most moving stuff is his deep qualms about the murderous raids on Japan, which he planned as Curtis LeMay's deputy. Most stunning was his revelations about the near end of the world in the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Cubans actually had 162 live nuclear warheads on the island, and Castro's recommendation was to USE THEM if we invaded. Everything the US did was based on our belief that they had NONE. I actually heard that a few days earlier from McNamara himself, at a concurrent conference on the Missile Crisis, and questioned him after (http://hammernews.com/mcnamara.ram). It was a stunning revelation, like being punched in the stomach, since I'd done several big articles on the threat of nuclear war.
McNamara is still smart, wily, and unwilling to be forced into any unwanted admission. He does show sorrow and pain at the results of his actions in Vietnam, and Morris's expert merging of historical audio show Mac and Kennedy were advocating withdrawal as far back as 1963. A fascinating character study, an important historical document, and a slick merging of media, music, man, and movie.
Michael Hammerschlag
McNamara is still smart, wily, and unwilling to be forced into any unwanted admission. He does show sorrow and pain at the results of his actions in Vietnam, and Morris's expert merging of historical audio show Mac and Kennedy were advocating withdrawal as far back as 1963. A fascinating character study, an important historical document, and a slick merging of media, music, man, and movie.
Michael Hammerschlag