Wordiezett So much average

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

asymptot It's worth seeing a smart but (in the past, at least) potentially misguided man explore his role in history. Yes, it's a bit biased in downplaying McNamara's role in pushing for the continuation of the Nam war, but it does show a man who has primarily learned the error of his follies. Perhaps he learned them a bit too late, but his account serves to hopefully teach future world shapers not to make the same mistakes. This movie shows the tragedy of how smart men can still be excruciatingly dumb in certain situations, and that, as McNamara says, rationality, in itself, will not save us.

chaswe-28402 Unlike most other documentary interviews I've seen, I found this interesting and even satisfying to watch. However, after reading what Wikipedia has to say about the Vietnam War, and skimming the six pages of McNamara's obituary in the NY Times, I can't say I'm greatly the wiser about what McNamara's personal responsibility might have been. Why was it called McNamara's War by Senator Morse ? It seems to me, whatever McNamara's role, that the buck stopped with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. It was America's war and the Presidents' war. McNamara must have done his best to serve them, and I can't see why he should bear the blame for what must be reckoned their policies. Did he hide the futility of the war from these presidents ? I'm thinking he deserves a medal for guts and stamina, fighting against the odds until his death at 93.

Karl Self This is an excellent, subdued interview with Robert Strange McNamara, who was US secretary of defense during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. If you have any interest in and a bit of knowledge of recent US history, then this will be a pot of gold to you. It is packaged as a series of lessons (confusingly, ten "life lessons" and eleven "political lessons), which doesn't work so well, partially because they aren't catchy enough for a movie. I particularly found McNamara's personal account of his life before his political career very interesting.You don't have to be a history buff to profit from this movie, but be advised that you need to have at least a working knowledge of the Kennedy and Johnson years.

faraaj-1 The Fog of War is a valuable record of history and the life of the brilliant and controversial Robert S. MacNamara. The documentary, brilliantly told, recounts the life of MacNamara from his middle-class beginnings to Harvard, his role as an aide to General LeMay in WW2 in the aerial bombings of Japan, his rise in Ford Motors during the 1950's culminating in him replacing Henry Ford for all of one week before resigning to join President Kennedy as Secretary of Defence. The bulk of the documentary deals with the next seven years of the cold war and MacNamara's recounting of the Cuban missile crisis and gradually sinking into the morass that was Vietnam. MacNamara eventually resigned or was asked to and headed a little organization called the World Bank for about a decade. He was well and truly the stuff leaders are made of. He is quite candid and does admit to errors made in assessing Vietnam without fully apologizing or calling it a mistake. He describes the horrifying aerial bombings of 67 Japanese cities and confesses that if they had lost the war, he and LeMay would have been tried as war criminals. MacNamara also elicits some sympathy and almost seems human when he breaks down while describing Kennedy's assassination and his responsibility in choosing an appropriate burial spot. MacNamara was close to the action in some of the defining events of the 20th century. A brilliant mind and eloquent speaker even in his mid-80's, he communicates very effectively and is interesting to watch as he recounts historic events.Errol Morris is the greatest documentary film-maker of our times or possibly ever and knows how to present the vast amount of material he worked with (apparently over 20 hours of interviews with MacNamara over a two year period). There is none of that Michael Moore style personal interference in the narrative. Its all told dispassionately, yet Morris's anti-war message does come through quite clearly. Morris has dug up a lot of historic footage, created some footage to help the narrative along and made a brilliant decision to use Phillip Glass's minimalist score.This documentary left me reeling for a few days and it really expands the mental horizons and gives a vivid perspective on various historic events. Its also very entertaining and fluid viewing. Cinema doesn't get much better (or informative) than this.