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The Fog of War

The Fog of War

Documentary · TV Movie · 2003

Using archival footage, cabinet conversation recordings, and an interview of the 85-year-old Robert McNamara, The Fog of War depicts his life, from working as a WWII whiz-kid military officer, to being the Ford Motor Company's president, to managing the Vietnam War as defense secretary for presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Movie details

The Fog of War

2003 Documentary · TV Movie 1h 47m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

8.1 / 10

25.5K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

96 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

87 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.7 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Using archival footage, cabinet conversation recordings, and an interview of the 85-year-old Robert McNamara, The Fog of War depicts his life, from working as a WWII whiz-kid military officer, to being the Ford Motor Company's president, to managing the Vietnam War as defense secretary for presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Fog of War?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Errol Morris

Robert McNamara

Robert McNamara

Self

Errol Morris

Errol Morris

Self (uncredited)

Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Barry Goldwater

Barry Goldwater

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

C

Curtis LeMay

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Court is in session

Put The Fog of War on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Auteur Devotee

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.