Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Film Excess' 6th birthday movie masterpiece: The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003, documentary) - Morris attains a stunning depth and historic wingspan in chilling, inspiring and mind-boggling must-see

6/04/2019

Film Excess' 6th birthday movie masterpiece: The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003, documentary) - Morris attains a stunning depth and historic wingspan in chilling, inspiring and mind-boggling must-see

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Biopic of the Year + Best War Movie of the Year

With praise literally set between the lines, and the classily dressed Robert S. McNamara up against these, not unlike the background for a criminal in a lineup, this poster for Errol Morris' The Fog of War is cleverly devised

Robert S. McNamara worked with statistics during WWII, modernized the Ford auto company and was the US's secretary of defense for seven years, from 1961-68, while 25,000 US soldiers were killed in the Vietnam War. What lessons did he take from this incredible life?

The Fog of War is a masterwork in documentary from one of the discipline's masters, New-Yorker Errol Morris (Gates of Heaven (1978)), whose 8th feature it is. With one central interview with McNamara, in which the man is framed and the camera sometimes subtly tilted in such a way as to remind us audiences of the dizzying aspects of his statements, and to nudge us into staying critical towards the charismatic and eloquent subject, Morris here attains an expertly insightful portrait of not only US foreign and war politics during the Cold War, and a very powerful man who was pivotal to these, but also of his country on the whole through large parts of the 20th century.
It is both provocative and humanistically inspiring that the film is structured as 11 lessons that we can take (or deny) from the experience of the highly intelligent and complex McNamara. Whatever one may feel about the man and his actions, his cool assessments carry weight and validity. The film showcases a frightfully accomplished political communicator, who opposed the escalation of the Vietnam War internally as part of the political leadership under presidents J.F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and who states frankly that it is only due to the (for the US) humiliating outcome of the war that he hasn't been prosecuted for war crimes. Morris orders his material so that we may ponder over the vast loss of lives and resources while keeping a critical edge towards McNamara. During the credits we are also afforded clips where his responses to Morris' questions are simply denials to answer those that he felt came to close to his personal life, or the ones that he knew would incur too much controversy, (according to his taste.) This is also valuable clips, as they remind us that McNamara is a very conscious of his words and performance as an actor of his own and his country's history for the documentary.
The Fog of War is staged with a staggering mass of archival source material; it is an invaluable source for the understanding of Robert S. McNamara and the century in which he lived.

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Previous Film Excess birthday movie masterpieces: Film Excess' 5th birthday movie masterpiece: Hunger/Sult/Svält (1966) - Oscarsson leaves you breathless in Carlsen's impressionist masterpiece
Film Excess' 4th birthday movie masterpiece: From Here to Eternity (1953) - Zinnemann, Taradash and Jones' Hawaii-set classic
Film Excess' 3rd birthday movie masterpiece: Anatomy of a Murder (1959) - The courtroom movie to rule them all
Film Excess' 2nd birthday movie masterpiece: The King's Speech (2010) - Hooper's soaring, royal masterpiece about overcoming human frailty
Film Excess' 1st birthday movie masterpiece: Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

Cost: Reportedly 2 mil. $
Box office: 5 mil. $
= Even (returned 2.5 times its cost)
[The Fog of War premiered 21 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, out of competition) and runs 107 minutes. Shooting took place in Massachusetts, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, Washington DC, Shanghai, China, Tokyo, Japan and Berlin, Germany. The film opened #46 to a 41k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 261 theaters, grossing 4.1 mil. $ (82 % of the total gross). The biggest markets in the 840k $ total foreign gross are not known. The film won the Best Documentary Oscar as well as an Independent Spirit award, 2 National Board of Review awards and other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Morris returned with Abu Ghraib-torture-themed documentary Standard Operating Procedure (2008). The Fog of War is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.32/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fog of War?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (6-24)

6/04/2019

Film Excess' 6th birthday movie masterpiece: The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003, documentary) - Morris attains a stunning depth and historic wingspan in chilling, inspiring and mind-boggling must-see

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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