Last year, VM reader Elayne and essayist extraordinaire Ron Rosenbaum goofed on me for never having watched an Errol Morris movie. I finally sat down and watched my TiVo’d copy of The Fog of War a few nights ago. I’m still picking up pieces of my brain from the floor of my living room.
I wasn’t quite as angered as Rosenbaum was by Robert McNamara’s portrayal of himself (if you’re interested in reading Ron’s take on it, you should probably type “New Morris Film Traps McNamara in a Fog of War” into Google, then hit the “cached pages” option on the second link). I think it’s an issue of age; I was born in 1971, so rage about Vietnam is really second-hand. Intellectually, I understand the anger, but it’s not an era with which I have any direct experience, so my view of McNamara was more ambiguous than the one Ron demonstrates in his column.
Anyway, that’s why I added Errol Morris’ site to the blogroll. It’s got some intriguing content, and a really smooth-looking design.
At some point, I guess I’ll have to watch a Michael Moore flick, so’s I can write draw some sorta comparison between these two as filmmakers.