The Fog of War

Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: Movies: Documentaries: The Fog of War
By LUIGI NOVI (Lnovi) on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 8:41 pm:

I saw this documentary earlier today. It's pretty darn good. It focuses on Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson, who's considered the architect of the Vietnam War.

The film is a candid interview between him and acclaimed documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, which touches upon the lessons he learned from Vietnam, the mistakes he made, and his regrets. It juxtaposes his experiences witnesses the post-WWI victory parade, his WWII experience, Kennedy's death, his time as the President of Ford Motors (during which he introduced seatbelts--I didn't know that), and how they relate to his thoughts about Vietnam.

You can view or download it in its entirety for free here.


By Brian FitzGerald on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 12:21 pm:

I've heard good things about it. When I was in school I learned about Morris in a documentary film class. He's a very unique film maker who doesn't do the usual two people sitting across from each other with cameras shooting across at each other like a standard sit down interview. Instead he uses a thing he calls the Interrotron where both parties are looking at a video image of the other one projected right in front of a camera lens, so the person being interviewed is looking straight into the camera lens, and hence straight at the audience.

http://www.whiterabbitdesigncompany.com/Miscellaneous/images/Interrotron.html


By LUIGI NOVI (Lnovi) on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 5:45 pm:

Yeah, that's what he used for this film. But I think that that would seem kinda weird for the subject.


By Brian FitzGerald on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 11:42 pm:

That's what he uses for all of his films. On his first film he didn't and just sat right next to the camera and you can see his hair blowing in front of the lens some times because he still wanted that "looking right into the camera/audience" effect. He's said he likes it because he thinks it encourages subjects to just talk in montage to the audience.


By LUIGI NOVI (Lnovi) on Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 8:19 am:

??? How does one talk "in montage"?


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