Filmmaker Errol Morris brilliantly tackles the thorny reputation of former defense secretary Robert McNamara, widely reviled as the ultimate architect of the Vietnam War. McNamara, who died recently makes a final statement. The former head of Ford Motor Co. whose government service began during World War II, looks you straight in the eye and tells it like it was. This is an eerie experience. Out of his mind all that inside knowledge is laid bare. McNamara discusses at length the Allied campaign against Japan in WWII, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the disastrous Vietnam war. Morris fashions 11 “lessons;” they are presented one by one creating the structure of the film. Tapes provide hair-raising words from Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. This is simply one of the best documentaries on war you will ever see.
