I've recently gotten frustrated with the lack of selection at the local movie rental places. Having discovered that their inventory has very little that I am inspired to rent and haven't yet seen, I bit the bullet and signed up for Netflix. My first movies arrived today and I just watched the very first one, Errol Morris' Fog of War.

For starters, let me say that I wholly recommend watching this documentary. I have not watched a more thought-provoking movie in some time - perhaps ever. I found the film engaging on many topics and many levels. There are numerous reasons that I like this film and I will only discuss a few here.

The documentary focuses on the Vietnam war and McNamara's involvement and responsibility for it. To date, the picture that has been painted in my mind by various history classes, books, and conversations has led me to believe something wholly inaccurate about Robert McNamara. I came away from the film with an enormous respect for McNamara as a person and for his political achievements.

Along those lines, I had always believed that McNamara was a hawk that had been one of the principal architects of the Vietnam war. His interview in this film, backed up by audio tapes of conversations between McNamara, Kennedy, and Johnson, demonstrate that this is incorrect. In fact, the footage seems to demonstrate that it was Johnson that brought the war on. Beyond just the Texas accent, I found a lot of very disturbing similarities between Johnson's war-time rhetoric and that of our current administration. The historical parallels are creepy.

I see the eleven lessons learned from McNamara's life being lost entirely on our current body politic. Whereas Farenheit 9/11 was a get-out-the-vote tool for the democratic low-brow, I see Fog of War as carrying a much more effective message along the same lines - albeit considerably more subtle. He truly understands how personal politics, human fallibility, and lack of understanding led to an un-winnable war. The american leadership could learn a lot from these lessons, as could the american people.

Above and beyond historical parallels to Vietnam, the aspect of the movie that made me think the most was something that was only covered briefly at the beginning of the film - the capacity for human beings to make mistakes and the rammifications of this on nuclear capability. This is naturally of interest to me because of my currently employment.

McNamara gave me some new perspective on issues that I place a great amount of weight on. I'm writing this just after watching the film and haven't had enough time to really think about what it all means to me personally. The purpose of me writing this isn't to tell you what amazing new conclusions I've come to; just to illustrate that the movie is powerful and I think you should see it - whoever you are.