Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A Disappointing Continuation

Blistering performances.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The Fog of War (2003)*** 1/2 (out of 4)Oscar-winning documentary from Errol Morris takes a look at the career of Robert McNamara, which went from WWII to Ford to John F. Kennedy and up to Vietnam. Through an interview with McNamara and countless bits of audio and archival video footage, we go through nearly sixty-years worth of material as McNamara explains the reasonings behind various events. THE FOG OF WAR is an extremely well-made documentary and a lot of credit has to go to Morris for the way he structured the film. The mixture of the interview footage with the archival footage was perfectly done and I think both suit the other extremely well and help make this film so memorable. Just take a look at the emotional scene where McNamara talks about the Kenneddy assassination and how he helped find the plot for him to be buried. Just look at the way we see McNamara's emotion face and words and then how Morris puts a picture up of Kennedy. A very simple move but an emotional one that really works. McNamara was 85-years-old when the interview took place but you certainly wouldn't know it because it looks great and his mind is obviously still sharp and he talks a mile a minute and is so captivating with each and every word. Even if you hate McNamara and everything he stands for you really can't help but be drawn into him and it's easy to see why he could control so much. The way he speaks, the power in his voice, the way his messages are delivered are just so right on the mark that you can't help but take notice of everything he's saying. THE FOG OF WAR is certainly one of the most interesting documentaries out there and it's really an important piece of history especially considering how much McNamara was involved in.

McNamara's movie is an enjoyable one, but it's just an opinion of him and there's hardly any analysis of him or other people's opinion of his statement from other experts in the field. It's the same thing as Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. When one person monopolizes the party, his opinion may monopolize you. So this review is only a background information before watching the movie not to get lost into the propaganda of things. Public Relations is actually the same word as Propaganda. And the person who coined the word "Public Relations" - a cousin of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays actually mentioned this fact. Hollywood is not supposed to be historically accurate, nor does it really teach us much. It is filled with personalities, drama, action, comedy for the basic purposes of entertainment. I also love entertainment myself. But to confuse reality and semi fiction is dangerous. Remember the movie Blair Witch? People thought they were real people. They were actually actors. Can you tell if a politician is acting or telling the truth? Really. Or have you watched the old 1960s T.V. Show "To tell the truth". The life lessons of McNamara can't be summarized into 11 lessons. It's not even McNamara's lessons. It's Morris interpretation of McNamara. In fact McNamara in the DVD documentary has other lists too, and whether that is what McNamara learned is really anyone's guesses. Also if McNamara were actually agree to do a documentary, the directors BETTER make the look better and improved their image, otherwise there's no incentive to do it in the first place. Few actor in their right mind, would do a movie (.e.g Bruce Willis or Harrison Ford) do a movie for free when his personality and popularity is at his peak. One of the lessons, seems more like lessons of what the public perceives to be true for today (it's much easier to play along public sympathies). Such as war can't be averted, that might be true. But wars are engineered by governments so they can go into war. Pretext of war is a deception of the public opinion that they are indeed our enemy, when the enemy is us. History is filled with U.S. firing on it's own ship and blaming the enemies as a pretext to war. Remember the Lusitania, and the unsuccessful one President Johnson to get Israel to fire on a U.S. ship as a pretext to war with Egypt, unluckily the Russian jet knew and the whole war there had to be discontinued. The reason why war was stopped is not the benevolent government, it came from the Russians. KGB files revealed that the Russian's financed the Peace Protest in the U.S. which lead to Kent State University killing, that finally lead to a withdrawal of Vietnam War. A more accurate history account can't be told from one man's perspective. He can have a monopoly over you. Take for instance, Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. People now know that it's the Sun, not CO2. In fact it's not even global warming, it's the entire solar system of all our planets that is warming as our solar system reaches an unstable equatorial region of the Milky way with black hole radiation emanating from it. General Idi Dada Amin (A Self Portrait) is interviews by himself, and he seems like a cute and funny guy, but then aren't leaders suppose to be good public relations? He's perhaps one of the most evil men in history. Robert McNamara some think (I don't think so)he's a smart and a man of wisdom. But that's self promotion. While Kennedy was the only one who opposed the war (he was killed for that and other things such as vote cheating by LBJ, firing of Allen Dulles - a powerful Rockfeller backed person), why is it news media avoided that and twisted the fact as if Kennedy was pushing for Vietnam war? A good history lesson I recommend, Professor Carroll Quigley, "Tragedy and Hope", which tells of a powerful economic and consolidation of power behind all the wars. If you are a fan of Carroll (Bill Clinton was one) then our civilization's downfall is near that if you follow his books written in early 60s or late 50s - The Evolution of Civilization. The whole issue of war and why we go into war is a clear one. It is no mistake of the administration. And some people are beginning to believe WTC is an inside job and an controlled demolition (especially thermite bombs and building number 7) as a pretext for the Iraq war. After the U.S. took over Kuwait on the war against Saddam, most of Kuwaiti oil now belongs to the U.S, and the sheiks who owned it was actually never returned. Therefore things is not what it seemed and you just have to dig deeper. You get different realities all together - the blue pill or the red pill. I don't know which, because the media made us color blind.

Errol Morris came to fame in the late 1980s with his anti-police corruption documentary The Thin Blue Line, and has spent the last couple decades gracing cinephiles with controversial, yet distinguished, films. Last year's Oscar-winning documentary The Fog Of War: Eleven Lessons From The Life Of Robert S. McNamara is his best yet, and one of the best films- documentary or not- ever made. It works as a history of the American Military of the last 50 years, and a personal portrait of ex-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, architect of the Vietnam War, not to mention a philosophical foray into the nature of man and evil.Yet, delineated as those 3 points are, the film is not dogmatic. McNamara is not portrayed as sympathetic, although sometimes he elicits sympathy- his love and loss felt at the murder of JFK, nor dogmatic, although his actions in the film and out belie that, and led to his being fired by LBJ. Morris takes an effective tack by parsing the film as 11 lessons from McNamara- a very Oriental approach to a life. This is also reflected in the fact that the film rarely answers questions, in the general or specific, rather intent on making its viewers think. Great art usually provokes queries, not smooths with answers.Thus the film's essence and its title, which refers to the chaotic complexity, therefore unpredictability, inherent in war. This film has got to be the shortest 105 minutes in film history for, if the deleted scenes (culled from over 20 hours of interviews) are any clue this film should more properly have been a PBS miniseries. There are probably only a literal dozen or so films that will have relevance and cogence in 1000 years. This is one of them. Watch it. Understand it. Absorb it. If you don't you are likely to be as regretful as its prime subject.

This is the only movie I have viewed twice in a row, and apologize for having NO clue why the movie was so compelling. It left me emotionally wrung out. It is NOT just some boring, emotionless war movie, war re-telling, or piece of propaganda. McNamara is electrifying, riding the roller coaster of emotions from knee-slapping humor to teary-eyed, voice-cracking despair to nerve-tingling horror at the destruction that was...and could've been. His intelligence is a wonder of its own: he displays no ego, speaks plainly, and avoids any self-aggrandizement, but his perspective is invaluable. And the lessons here have broader applications, suitable for anyone who would be in politics/government, business, management, foreign affairs, or supervision. Kudos to him, and the director!