As a young man in the 1960s, I sometimes saw and heard the US Defense Secretary in cinema news clips and on TV. He came across as arrogant, over-confident, powerful and didactic...
Nothing much has changed in the last forty years, despite McNamara's admission that, if the US had lost World War II, he and General Curtis LeMay would have been tried as war criminals. You could probably say the same thing about the man in relation to the Vietnam War also which was, in the final analysis, an utter waste and debacle.
In both cases, however, McNamara makes no apologies for helping to orchestrate some of the worst civilian casualties in history while bombing many Japanese cities into ashes and the napalm nightmare plus Agent Orange horror visited upon Vietnam villages.
The documentary, in Morris's usual fashion, simply allows McNamara to talk directly to the camera; interleaved with that are many official film records from war and photos etc from his own early years. So, the human face of the man is constructed or attempted -- showing his doubts, his misgivings, his struggles with different wars and different presidents. Never once, in my opinion, does he come across as being someone you'd like to know...
But, perhaps that's true of most public figures in times of war? No doubt he was a good family man as the footage purports to show; however, many grossly evil people have recourse to such revisionism without mentioning any names at later times, and even more so now.
The sad truth is that, regardless of which side you're on, leaders who are caught up in wars often must do things that are abhorrent for most. That doesn't excuse their behavior or exonerate them from culpability. McNamara to give him his due at least now admits that he and others made many mistakes, which, for the documentary, he encapsulates into his eleven lessons from life. But, what it does mean is that humankind still has a long way to go before our proclivity to be all too human is finally eclipsed by a commonality of purpose in our shared humanity.
Ultimately, that's the failure of McNamara and all people like him.
Highly recommended for all mature viewers.
Nothing much has changed in the last forty years, despite McNamara's admission that, if the US had lost World War II, he and General Curtis LeMay would have been tried as war criminals. You could probably say the same thing about the man in relation to the Vietnam War also which was, in the final analysis, an utter waste and debacle.
In both cases, however, McNamara makes no apologies for helping to orchestrate some of the worst civilian casualties in history while bombing many Japanese cities into ashes and the napalm nightmare plus Agent Orange horror visited upon Vietnam villages.
The documentary, in Morris's usual fashion, simply allows McNamara to talk directly to the camera; interleaved with that are many official film records from war and photos etc from his own early years. So, the human face of the man is constructed or attempted -- showing his doubts, his misgivings, his struggles with different wars and different presidents. Never once, in my opinion, does he come across as being someone you'd like to know...
But, perhaps that's true of most public figures in times of war? No doubt he was a good family man as the footage purports to show; however, many grossly evil people have recourse to such revisionism without mentioning any names at later times, and even more so now.
The sad truth is that, regardless of which side you're on, leaders who are caught up in wars often must do things that are abhorrent for most. That doesn't excuse their behavior or exonerate them from culpability. McNamara to give him his due at least now admits that he and others made many mistakes, which, for the documentary, he encapsulates into his eleven lessons from life. But, what it does mean is that humankind still has a long way to go before our proclivity to be all too human is finally eclipsed by a commonality of purpose in our shared humanity.
Ultimately, that's the failure of McNamara and all people like him.
Highly recommended for all mature viewers.