How often do you get a first-hand take on recent history? The Fog of War, which we saw two nights ago, is a fantastic film. Robert McNamara has a story to tell and it’s fascinating to listen to a significant participant in some of the most tumultuous moments of the 1960s. I don’t kow what his motives are for telling that story now, and why he agreed to sit down with Errol Morris, but I’m glad he did. I’ve read a little bit about Vietnam, and seen a lot of the multi-part PBS series on the war (and its precursors) while in high school, so I felt mildly informed. But this first person narrative, combined with various clips from the era being discussed, was great. Non-fiction is powerful stuff when it’s so vivid.
I can only believe the parallels between the McNamara as Secretary of Defense and Rumsfeld in that same role are coincidental. Morris doesn’t make any obvious connections, and I’m not clear about the timing of these interviews, and whether current events played a role in the creation of this film. I don’t think so. But the common shared perceptions of intelligence and arrogance are obvious, and while Iraq is not (yet?) Vietnam, it’s clearly going to be a part of the American story internationally for years (decades?) to come.
I have not seen Morris’s other films, like the much-acclaimed The Thin Blue Line. But I’m adding that one to Netflix right now.
2 responses so far ↓
1 clock — watching time, the only true currency » » Movie: Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control // Aug 23, 2006 at 6:42 am
[...] Oops…wrong movie. The movie was on my list because of The Fog of War, the fantastic documentary about the Vietnam War through the recollections of one of the United States’ leaders in the conflict, TK TK. Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control even stranger if the expert was naked. Morris’s signature interview style, where the subject is speaking straight into the camera, filling the screen, really works. The music, too, somehow weaves things together. The intercutting of old science footage and pulp movies, though, was a leap. Overall, I liked watching these folks explain their passions, but I’m glad it was only 80 minutes. [...]
2 Book: Vietnam: A History | clock — watching time, the only true currency // Sep 21, 2007 at 9:49 pm
[...] The American presence in Iraq feels wrong because, like Vietnam, the war is disrupting our national self-image, our world presence, and our economy (and that last part does matter). Seeing that so many warned of the dangers of our involvement in Vietnam, it’s all the more tragic to watch us assume that our ability to change other people has improved. So many who supported America’s role in Vietnam at first learned the error of their ways…and yet we dragged on for years. [...]
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