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THE
FOG OF WAR
7/10
The
Fog of War – Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S McNamara
USA
2003 : Errol MORRIS : 105 mins
War is
not an exact science, and most acts of war are based on decisions made
“in the fog”, that is without an overview of the actual conditions. When
the war is over and the fog lifts, everything looks very different. It
is like this also for decision makers, if only they are able to admit
it. Robert McNamara, former US Secretary of Defense, now 86 years old,
has a lot to tell: about decisions, about power, about more than just
one war. In conversation with filmmaker Errol Morris, McNamara pours out
his experiences, his knowledge, his reflection and, in the end, his helplessness.
(from official Tromsø 2004 Film Festival programme)
The film’s
Eleven Lessons subtitle is correct: this documentary is pretty
much an illustrated, talking-head lecture, broken up into non-chronological
sections, delivered by the aged but feisty McNamara – Defense Secretary
to Democrat presidents Kennedy and Johnson. But the “lessons” structure
itself doesn’t really work – this feels like an arbitrary way of dividing
up McNamara’s recollections, and in most instances by the time a chapter
has concluded the viewer has forgotten the lesson we were supposed to
learn.
The illustrations,
meanwhile, take the form of film, video and audio clips of McNamara himself,
mixed with stock-footage of the key historical events (World War II and
the Tokyo firestorm; Bay of Pigs and the Cuban missile crisis; Vietnam)
in which he participated. As selected by Morris, these illustrations are
often fascinating, occasionally even inspired. At other times, however,
they are standard-issue stuff familiar from any documentary on 20th
century American history. The flashback material is heralded by cutting
to a black screen on which a year is superimposed (“1945”, “1968”, etc)
for a few seconds – this gives the film a gratuitous stateliness that
gradually gets on one’s nerves. And Philip Glass’s urgent score, though
serving to give the film a much-needed unity, isn’t immune from lapsing
into cliché
Morris’s decision
to concentrate so squarely on McNamara, meanwhile, does pay dividends
– the subject is able to address the camera directly, thanks to Morris’s
“Interrotron” invention. But there’s an unfortunate side-effect of this
device - the director’s questions come across in an oddly disembodied
and high-pitched voice – it’s as if McNamara is being quizzed by an unseen
Michael Jackson impersonator. There are many fascinating stories here,
however, and McNamara relates them with convincing honesty and objectivity,
a clear-eyed kind of hindsight that doesn’t shirk from uncomfortable conclusions
or admissions of guilt. While absorbing and watchable as a feature documentary
(even if not in the same league as its Oscar rival Capturing
the Friedmans) The Fog of War will of course prove invaluable
as a historical testament.
The real stars
of the show, however, are editors Karen Schmeer, Doug Abel and Chyld King,
who assemble McNamara’s comments into a seamless audio track. The visuals
make no attempt to hide the editing process, Morris preferring to leave
in all the cuts rather than deploy the normal documentary technique of
covering them up: this results in a jumpy, jerky look which should in
theory be off-putting, but actually turns out to suit the crusty, no-bullshit
McNamara rather well.
3rd
February, 2004
(seen 15th January : Kulturhuset, Tromsø – Tromsø
International Film Festival)
click here
for a full list of reviewed films from the Tromsø International Film Festival
2004
by Neil
Young
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