Friday, February 20, 2004

The Fog of War Review I went to see The Fog of War last night with my dad, his wife and Matt.  Not a casual movie. Two solid hours of an 88 year old man reflecting on his role in the history of the Twentieth Century.    But what a role!  McNamara served as kind of a statistics geek during WWII in both Europe and the Pacific.  He compiled statistics and helped guide strategy for bombing campaigns and helped decide the most effective way to bomb Japan's wooden cities and they featured some horrific pictures of the aftermath of the firebombing raids. He also gave his account of how we stumbled into Vietnam.  The message I recieved is that the guys in charge are not omniscient as I like to imagine them.  Rational and educated as they are, they are not really driving the bus so much as sitting scared in the back seat with the rest of us,  managing our feelings about how fast the bus is falling off the cliff. The movie played some of McNamara's phone conversations in which he is advising president Johnson not to share information about Vietnam with he American people. Bottom line is that Errol Morris has made a valuable document about this key player in U.S. military strategy.  I can recommend it if you are a student of the Vietnam era or are a World War II buff.  The movie annoyed me sometimes with a distracting background montage featuring things like magnified eyes looking at maps and bombs falling out of airplanes.  I guess the background clips didn't fit the narration as well as they should have.  4:07:54 PM    comment []