Day: February 6, 2004

Vin Crosbie gives us an update on his progress on the 21st-century business plan for newspaper publishing. Curious to see how it reads for those of us without print editions, too. Stay tuned, I guess.

How often do you get a first-hand take on recent history? The Fog of War, which we saw two nights ago, is a fantastic film. Robert McNamara has a story to tell and it’s fascinating to listen to a significant participant in some of the most tumultuous moments of the 1960s. I don’t kow what his motives are for telling that story now, and why he agreed to sit down with Errol Morris, but I’m glad he did. I’ve read a little bit about Vietnam, and seen a lot of the multi-part PBS series on the war (and its precursors) while in high school, so I felt mildly informed. But this first person narrative, combined with various clips from the era being discussed, was great. Non-fiction is powerful stuff when it’s so vivid.

I can only believe the parallels between the McNamara as Secretary of Defense and Rumsfeld in that same role are coincidental. Morris doesn’t make any obvious connections, and I’m not clear about the timing of these interviews, and whether current events played a role in the creation of this film. I don’t think so. But the common shared perceptions of intelligence and arrogance are obvious, and while Iraq is not (yet?) Vietnam, it’s clearly going to be a part of the American story internationally for years (decades?) to come.

I have not seen Morris’s other films, like the much-acclaimed The Thin Blue Line. But I’m adding that one to Netflix right now.