Though the film focuses on McNamara and is almost entirely narrated by him, the "History Channel" effect is obliterated by the hard-to-miss subtext, which endeavors to evaluate US involvement in Iraq in terms of what has come before. McNamara is so factual in his logic that the film sometimes comes across as an Art of War-type thing until Morris deploys some of his brilliantly symbolic imagery to let you know that this is about something that's going on right now, something you should care about, and something that probably will never go away. That Morris takes such an abstract path to ultimately stage his dissent on the Iraq war is admirable; that his film is so credible is remarkable. People who love Fahrenheit 9/11 love it simply because they agree with it; those who love The Fog of War love it because it is a beautiful, disturbing, and totally audacious work of cinema. Of Morris's films, this one reminded me a lot of the little-discussed Mr. Death in that it cast a much-reviled historical figure in such a different light than you'd expect … McNamara has long been considered a nerdy warmonger and, to hear the Baby Boomers tell it, was (as the Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and then Johnson) the guy responsible for Vietnam. Yet McNamara, at 85, could not come across as more charming, intelligent, insightful, and even emotional as he discusses the events of his life. Morris does seem to want McNamara to take personal responsibility for the Vietnam debacle, and while my nascent "Liberal activist" side wanted some blood, I honestly found McNamara to be much more believable than apologetic. In other words, it did seem like a lot of the Vietnam nonsense, for him, was more about doing his job than about any particular passion for killing people. There was also an element of A Brief History of Time here, given a structure that draws eleven distinct "lessons" from McNamara's life. The subject matter is thought-provoking without ever seeming dry or corny (even the footage of Vietnam was entirely not the typical shit I was bombarded with in high-school history classes taught by pony-tailed former "conscientious objectors" – this was like considering Vietnam in a completely new light; that is, without having to listen to Buffalo Springfield). It's an amazing movie. Powerfully political without the usual partisan name-calling, The Fog of War made me think much more about why I might hate myself as a human instead of just hating George W. Bush for being "dumb" or whatever. For war is one of the most characteristically human creations … though seeing thousands of chimps fight each other might be kind of funny.
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