The Fog of War

The Fog of War
Cinema poster
Directed byErrol Morris
Produced byErrol Morris
Michael Williams
Julie Ahlberg
StarringRobert McNamara
CinematographyRobert Chappell (interviews)
Peter Donahue
Music byPhilip Glass
John Kusiak
Production
companies
RadicalMedia
SenArt Films
Distributed bySony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • May 21, 2003 (2003-05-21) (Cannes)
  • December 19, 2003 (2003-12-19)
Running time
107 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$5 million[1]

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara is a 2003 American documentary film about the life and times of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, illustrating his observations of the nature of modern warfare. It was directed by Errol Morris and features an original score by Philip Glass. The title derives from the military concept of the "fog of war", which refers to the difficulty of making decisions in the midst of conflict.

The film was screened out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival[2] and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature of 2003.[3] In 2019, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4]

  1. ^ "The Fog of War (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  2. ^ "Festival de Cannes: The Fog of War". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved September 13, 2024.
  3. ^ "NY Times: The Fog of War". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on December 7, 2008. Retrieved November 23, 2008.
  4. ^ Chow, Andrew R. (December 11, 2019). "See the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry, From Purple Rain to Clerks". Time. New York, NY. Retrieved December 11, 2019.