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The Art of War, 20th Century Style
The Fog of War reveals a lot of reality behind the man involved in two major American wars, Robert S. McNamara
Director: Errol Morris
Producers: Julie Bilson Ahlberg and Robert Fernandez
Reviewed by Kevin Cunningham
THE PITCH: Along with recently released classified material and White House recordings of conversations, Robert S. McNamara reveals the lessons he learned fighting in World War II, Vietnam, and the Cold War in general.
IN OTHER WORDS: Thirteen Days done by Michael Moore, except without the egos of Kevin Costner or Michael Moore.
 For all the political furor going on over Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, another documentary recently released on video has been unfortunately missed by many people. The Fog of War, made by award winning director Errol Morris, is a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking.
Morris starts with the basic, a comprehensive interview with Former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, who served under President's Kennedy and Johnson, and was in charge of the United States Military for both the Cuban Missile Crisis and the start of the Vietnam War. It adds a mix of found footage that is edited together with pizzazz and subtlety. It never throws anything in your face, but at the same time, you get exactly what they are trying to say. There's only a minimum of special effects added, and when they are, they never feel forced or over the top. Finally, interspersed with the interview are a number of newly released discussions between McNamara and the Presidents he served under and advisors he served with. It's all put together in a sensible order, and never rushes through things, yet never lingers ever.
Michael Moore, the flavor of the month amongst political commentators, could learn a lot from Morris' style and technical know-how. As much as Moore claims he is a purveyor of the truth, he is truly just a commentator and who uses partial truths and complete fictions to further his points, like other self-proclaimed 'truth telling' political commentators before him (such as Rush Limbaugh and that 'fair and balanced' guy on Fox). His filmmaking has more in common with modern porn than it does with traditional documentaries. Morris' style gets much more emotion and information across with much less fanfare, and it doesn't require the publicity of mock outrage that Moore creates to put his movies over.
When you walk away from The Fog of War, you get a true sense of a good man who got put in a very difficult position, and the compromises that he made and decisions that look bad with the benefit of hindsight. Instead of outrage, you're left with hope that today's leaders take note of the mistakes made in the past and would stop making them in today's wars.
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(2 out of 4 stars)
