The Fog of War truly is an entertaining piece of film-making but perhaps when we consider what it is we are made to think about the entire film begins to come apart. I think it's interesting that the Chicago Reader points out that the film is more entertainment that contemplation. For a film where you really should be hating McNamara for all his actions we seemed to be lolled into a false sense that we are watching and introspection rather than a recitation of history. The eleven lessons presented throughout, we are made to believe are those that McNamara presents when it fact it is the filmmakers approximation of what the life work McNamara sums up. The film uses introspective pauses and cuts out pauses at others, we are made to see an introspection when perhaps there is nothing there of the kind.
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Extremely interesting point, Adam, about the way the film is edited -- though we can't know how much McNamara really *was* introspecting, it's also worth pointing out the flip side, that Morris recorded at least 20 hours of interview with McNamara for what ended up on the screen.
ReplyDeleteThe other issue, how we feel about McNamara, is an important one, but it's at least worth asking: *are* we 'supposed' to hate McNamara? Obviously, Rosenbaum thinks that Morris is too easy on him (and that McN is too easy on himself), but McN does appear somewhat contrite; in addition, we have the luxury of hindsight to judge him in what is surely a tough job...