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

Director:

Errol Morris

Release Date:

February 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | War

Plot:

A film about the former US Secretary of Defense and the various difficult lessons he learned about the nature and conduct of modern war.

Plot Keywords:

Lesson | Secretary Of Defense | Vietnam | Lyndon Johnson | Interview

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 5 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Robert McNamara

...

Himself

Also Known As:

The Fog of War (USA) (short title)
The McNamara Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

95 min | USA:107 min (theatrical version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Brazil:12 | Finland:K-11 | Iceland:10 | Italy:T | Netherlands:MG6 | Norway:A | Singapore:PG | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Sony Pictures Classics

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.

Quotes:

Robert McNamara: [referring to auto accident research at Cornell Aeronautical Lab] They said "the main problem is packaging." They said "you buy eggs and you know how eggs come in a carton?"
[... ]
Robert McNamara: So Cornell said "they don't break because they're packaged properly. Now if we package people in cars the same way, we could reduce the breakage."

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 2004 IFP/West Independent Spirit Awards (2004) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Across the World

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.