The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert McNamara (2003): directed by Errol Morris; starring Errol Morris and Robert McNamara as themselves: Errol Morris pretty much just puts a camera on Kennedy/LBJ Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and interviews him several times. It's fascinating stuff as McNamara wrestles with his failures in Viet Nam, excusing some by noting that LBJ wouldn't listen to him sometimes while owning others.
We don't learn much about his private life (though Morris includes a scene in which McNamara discusses not discussing sensitive issues from his private life). We certainly learn about McNamara's theories on the rights and wrongs of war ('proportionality' is a key idea) as we survey his career, structured along those 11 lessons noted in the sub-title. Nor Morris' greatest documentary, but probably an essential one for anyone who wants to understand the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Highly recommended.
Darkest Hour (2017): written by Anthony McCarten; directed by Joe Wright; starring Gary Oldman (Winston Churchill), Kristin Scott Thomas (Clemmie Churchill), Ben Mendelsohn (King George VI), Lily James (Elizabeth Layton), Ronald Pickup (Neville Chamberlain), and Stephen Dillane (Viscount Halifax):
Old-fashioned, talky history picture got Gary Oldman and a whole lot of make-up and prosthetics a Best Actor Oscar for playing Winston Churchill. The film takes place over the course of a few weeks in 1940 during which Churchill becomes Prime Minister and is immediately faced with the dilemma of fighting or making peace with Nazi Germany while Germany's forces route the Allies on the continent.
It's certainly rousing stuff of a certain type, historically inaccurate in certain pumped-up scenes of Yay Blighty. Oldman is excellent, or at least he's not recognizable as Gary Oldman much of the time, and the Academy loves that shit. One could literally start Dunkirk immediately after this movie ends and have an almost seamless four-hour movie from two different directors. Recommended.
A Brief History of Time (1992): written and directed by Errol Morris; starring Stephen Hawking and friends and family: Errol Morris' documentary weaves together the life of physicist Stephen Hawking with illustrations of his contributions to physics and the process of his thinking. It's enjoyable and informative, though I would have liked more physics. And maybe a couple less scenes from Disney's The Black Hole. Seriously. Recommended.
