Okay, I can't see that another thread has been started on this masterpiece, and the timing is important so here goes. Errol Morris (Thin Blue Line, Brief History of Time, Fast Cheap and Out of Control) has released a new documentary that covers essentially the life and times of (the still living) Robert McNamara. The Fog of War site I post this now because I've just seen it and because it opens Friday at Houston's own River Oaks. I encourage any and all of the BBS community to consider viewing it. It is, really, an apolitical masterpiece. Morris really doesn't seem to have much of a goal aside from letting McNamara speak for himself. Out come the thoughts of a very lucid and intelligent 85-yr-old who, in his lifetime, advised the fire bombing of Japanese cities, served as secretary of defense during the Cuban missile crisis and during the build up and beginning of the Vietnam war. In case is sounds "boring" to some of you, trust me here: it's not. There is rare footage of several historical periods and all sorts of interesting visuals. There are audio tapes of intense McNamara-Kennedy conversations and McNamara-LBJ conversations. The working subtitle for the film was something like "11 lessons from the life of Robert McNamara" or some such, and that how it plays out. The "lessons" are startling, provacative and even moving. I will see this film again certainly, and I hope some of you take the time to sit down with it. If anyone has already seen it or sees it in Houston, please feel free to share your thoughts here. Cheers.
I had a film club pass to see this yesterday - and had to polish my knob...er....go to class, so I missed it. I may go see it tonight though, or a weekday next week.
B-Bob, yes I've been keeping an eye out for it. Here's some other links on it... http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/thefogofwar.html (trailer in Quicktime). http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1555460.html (there are 5 Real Audio links on this page -- make sure you listen to them all; very interesting). The two links at the bottom talk more about Errros Moris.