The mists of time: control, chaos and irreversibility in The Fog of War

This article considers how Errol Morris' The Fog of War (2003) mediates the retrospective self-criticisms and self-justifications of former US Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. It traces how the film finds cracks and fissures in McNamara's performance, creating space for an indirect commentary on his conduct, then and now, via sound/image juxtapositions and the gradual emergence of a trajectory of decline and failure. I argue that, in its self-reflexive but ultimately frustrating treatment of the Vietnam War and of history, Fog of War proves unable to move beyond the cul-de-sac of (limited) regret on the part of McNamara, and a reminder to its viewers of their own powerlessness, against the apparatus of war, and against time.