Piece Comment

Review of Fog of War review


A good piece which gives a very personal take on Morris's documentary film. Standout points include the small segue into a specific role McNamara played in South Vietnamese military affairs, and Lam's reflection and interpretation of both McNamara's apology, argument, and Morris's take. Although this could serve as a review of the documentary itself, it seems like it would be better suited in amongst other material on Vietnam, perhaps in the context of reevaluating Vietnam, especially vis a vis the invasion of Iraq. Would go well with other material from Daniel Ellsberg's memoir "Secrets" as a counterpart, perhaps read by a voice actor. Also, it's worth noting "Fog of War" is based on interviews with McNamara, but much is also covered in McNamara's earlier book "In Retrospect".

From an audio standpoint, Lam's voice may be hard for some listeners to parse, but shouldn't pose too much of a problem as his pacing is done very well. Another reviewer mentioned that Lam's status as the son of a South Vietnamese general added some authority; Lam himself does not mention this in the piece, so this would need to be addressed in introduction or closing commentary if that angle is to be a component of the piece.

Very well engineered and very personal. Well done all around.