The Fog Of War

Reviewed by PETER CALDER

Herald rating: * * * * *

The reminiscences of Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defence for Kennedy and Johnson, add up to a potent anti-war film precisely because it is devoid of polemic.

It offers a dizzying glimpse into the dark heart of American foreign policy and if the view isn't reassuring, it is relevant. Referring to Vietnam, McNamara regrets the US blundered in without the support of allies. "If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better re-examine our reasoning."

The man who emerges from the film is chillingly self-assured and, at 85, extraordinarily fluent. That effect is heightened by Morris' use of the Interrotron, a device that adapts teleprompter technology to conduct through-the-lens interviews so the subject appears to address the viewer.

Predictably these are unreliable memoirs and McNamara's selective recall has been well dissected (notably by Fred Kaplan at slate.msn.com/id/2092916). But this is a coolly brilliant portrait of a man who feels no remorse about what he got wrong and - which is worse - admits much of what he got right was dumb luck.

DIRECTOR: Errol Morris

RUNNING TIME: 115 minutes

RATING: PG (low level offensive language)

SCREENING: Rialto from Thursday