The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)

The Fog of War is a film which is based on the life of a man who has, for a long time, been disliked by the American public. This man is former Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, who can be said to be one of the most controversial figures to hold that office. This film analyzes the course of his whole life, in the perspective of McNamara himself. Not only does it look at his childhood, it also looks at the way he was brought up and the education he received. Furthermore, it deals with McNamara’s experience in the service of the public, from the time when he was a strategist in World War Two, to his being appointed Secretary of Defense, and also his tenure as the president of the World Bank. McNamara’s public career is laid bare for all the people of the United States to see, featuring interviews of McNamara himself as he speaks of the motivation behind the controversial decisions he made. One of the major highlights of this film is when he gives reasons for the atrocious actions he took when working as a strategist during World War Two. He is among the people who took part in the planning, and carrying out, of bombings of Tokyo in 1945 which killed many thousands of people. To justify this, McNamara states that the Japanese would have done the same thing to Americans had they been given an opportunity to do so.

The film also analyzes, at length, the years during which McNamara served as the Secretary of Defense during the presidencies of John Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon Johnson. It is stated by McNamara that Kennedy once suggested that the United States should withdraw from the war in Vietnam, but McNamara, in his capacity as Defense Secretary, advised him against it. A first hand view of how the Cuban Missile Crisis was handled by McNamara, with some of the decisions taken at the time being expounded on by the subject of the film, that is, McNamara. This film is divided into eleven parts, each of which deals with a part of McNamara’s career as well as his personal comments on how he handled matters in those times. McNamara displays an immense deal of pride in what he accomplished during his career in the public service, and although it was, he does not make any apologies for the mistaken decisions which he made. On the contrary, he only displays some regrets concerning those decisions and states that perhaps things could have been handled better. According to McNamara, the whole reason for the film being made is to make clear the fact that even reason has limits. What one concludes from this statement is that there are some actions, even of done for good, which sometimes end up producing results which are opposite what was. In fact, this can be said to be true of McNamara’s continued support for the Vietnam War even when it was known by the public that it was a complete failure.

For many people today, Robert McNamara’s term as the country’s Secretary of Defense was a complete failure. It is believed that most of the decisions he made tended to have a negative impact on the United States. This film, however, works towards the clearing of such a negative image of the man who served two administrations. It attempts to show that, like any other person, McNamara was also human, with all faults and failings that are associated with the race. The image of McNamara that is brought about by the film is that of a person with many complexities. It partially burnishes the common public image of McNamara being a heartless individual who would stop at nothing, nor hesitate to use anyone to achieve his goals. It shows that although his actions seemed to be ruthless on the outside, the man still had a conscience, and he often reflected on these actions. Another image of McNamara that comes forth in the film is that of being a player in significant historical events, which ended up being disastrous for those people who were directly affected. McNamara shows some regret for some of the actions he took in his belief that he was serving the best interests of his country. Despite this, he is not apologetic, and it is quite possible that the regret he displays is the closest thing to an apology that he is going to make. The film gives a rare glimpse at a man who was both enormously feared and admired by many.

Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)

This is a movie whose plot is set to address the ongoing issues, in Taiwan, concerning the changing ways of the people or society from the traditional Chinese to the more western ways. The plot of the movie is unique, because the conflict in the change is centered on food. It is a story of a retired chef who lives with his three single daughters until the time comes when they meet the loves of their lives. One of the daughters loves cooking like her father and it is her secret desire to become a chef like him. However, this is a challenge for her because it is rare for women to be allowed into the profession, which is male dominated. Despite the fact that the daughters look upon their father’s cooking for them as being too traditional, the meals they share serves to bring their family together, something which is extremely rare indeed in the modern society. Another daughter shows a lot of cynicism towards men until such a time as she meets a volleyball coach to who she is attracted. This daughter completely breaks with tradition by actively pursuing the man that she desires. The youngest daughter is a college student who is quite sexually adventurous and her escapades result in her getting pregnant. The chef’s wife has passed away sixteen years prior to the plot of the movie, and the lack of a mother in the household is something which is realized throughout the film. Had there been a mother’s presence in the family’s life, then the troubles which this family is undergoing would be nonexistent, or minimal.

One of the major themes of this movie is one of self sacrifice as seen when Jia-Jen decides to stay at home and look after her father and her sisters. She lives a single life because of this selflessness on her part and it can be said that she fills the role of the mother in the household. Her sister, Jia-Chien, is the direct opposite of her sister due to her selfish nature; not wanting to be bothered by the affairs of the family as long as all her needs are fulfilled. Jia-Ning, the youngest sister, lives a very carefree life and it can be said that this is because of the lack of guidance that she would have received from her mother had she been alive. Chu, their father, is a well meaning man who has chosen not to remarry for the sake of taking care of his daughters himself. He is a man who, despite the fact that his daughters have grown up and are supposed to move out of the home, continues to live with them. This is a sign of a caring father who, instead of choosing the modern way of letting his children go, decides to follow the traditional way of letting his daughters stay at home until such a time as they get married. The fact that his adult daughters are still living at home creates a lot of tension between them; a conflict that can be considered to be one between traditionalism and modernism.

This is an emotional film to watch because it does not have any action but it instead deals with the emotional aspects of the people within it. It has a powerful plot which curiously creates an environment that displays the day to day lives of the characters. It is similar to the the scenes that are increasingly becoming common in Taiwan, where the traditional way of life is coming into conflict with the modern ways. While some people are trying hard to retain their culture, the younger generation seems to be moving away from it. When one watches this movie, one comes to the conclusion that the old ways are losing out and that the best way to handle this transition should not be resistance, but acceptance. In addition, Chu’s slow loss of his sense of taste, something which he depends on to earn a living, is highly symbolic. The sense of taste can be said to be a symbol of the traditional way of life and the way that it is inevitably going to come to an end. The film itself is not boring because of the heavy drama which is involved in every scene. The camera work is done so well that this film can be considered to be a rare phenomenon in the Asian film industry, because the films from this region tend to have very little camera movement. In conclusion, it can be said that this film is highly revelatory of the way of life, and the dilemmas it brings with it, in modern Taiwan.

Infernal Affairs (2002)

Infernal Affairs is one of the best films to have come out of Hong Kong in recent times, and its success has been so well noted that it has helped to revive the Chinese film industry, which until the making of this film, was considered to have been lacking in creativity. The production of Infernal Affairs proved the critics of the Hong Kong film industry wrong, and illustrated the fact that China does indeed have what it takes to produce successful films. The success of Infernal Affairs and the wave of interest it generated inspired the creation of a prequel and a sequel to the film. Before its official release, this film generated a lot of interest among the prospective audience because of the difference in concept to the other films that had recently come from Hong Kong. It can be said that the concept, upon which the film is based, is highly unique and extraordinarily few films have been created using the same concept. This film employs a vibrating abruptness that is usually found in the work of the writer and director Michael Mann. The theme of this film uses the techniques which Mann used in the film Heat and this theme can be seen almost to the last detail. It has the same cold bloodedness that was displayed in the latter film and this, indeed, makes it one of a kind. When the film was released, it did not disappoint those who had expected it to have the qualities that were unique, fun, and at the same time made the film a serious picture to watch. It looks at the relationship between the police and the criminal underworld in a new perspective that many would consider impossible. It set a new record which many Hong Kong films of the same genre from that time on have been trying to reach. This film is, therefore, worthy of the adoration that many of its fans have had, and continue to have, for it.

The film gives the viewer a glance into the criminal underworld, that is dominated by the Triad, where criminal mastermind Hon Sam believes that he can make his gang live outside the law. To achieve this feat, he sends a group of young men to join the police academy so that when they become police officers, they will be able to keep any attention from his activities from the police. The main aim is to keep ahead of the police, by getting to know what moves the police are planning against him before those plans can be executed. In this way, he will be able to run his operations safely without any fear of getting caught. Unknown to Hon, the police are planning almost the exact thing against him. They want to place a mole within his organization so that the mole can tell them the moves that Hon makes, hence ensuring that he is caught red-handed. Under the supervision of Superintendent Wong, Chan is chosen to become the mole in Hon’s triad organization, and to achieve this, there is a public demonstration where Chan gets kicked out of the Academy despite being the best student. This leads him to enter the criminal underworld as an undercover cop, with only two people in the police department knowing his true identity. The duty, which has been assigned to Chan, is a perilous one indeed because he is tasked to remain with the triads until such a time as they are brought down, no matter how long it takes. Within the same academy as Chan is one Lau, who is a Triad mole tasked with keeping Hon up to date about the police movement against him.

The entire movie is based on the parallel lives which Lau and Chan live as moles in each other’s organizations and how these lives come to profoundly affect them personally. There is a sense, around the main characters of the film, of being disconnected and alienated and this helps to increase the excitement that one feels when watching it. This feeling keeps one wondering what is going to happen next, ensuring that one fully concentrates on the film, so the latter scenes are not missed out. These two characters are, unknowingly, brought together at the beginning of the film, each not having a hint of how interconnected their lives truly are. Both of these men have to deal with not getting too close to the people around them for fear that they might be found out for who they actually are. This situation keeps them alien in their new environment as they are not able to form the bonds of friendship, with the people around them, as would happen had they been in a normal situation. The mental torture these two men undergo in their adopted environments is further examined in the film through the study of the women who have been in their lives, both in the past and present. One woman, Lau’s girlfriend is a novelist who is not able to decide whether a character she is writing about and has modeled on her boyfriend should be good or evil. She does not realize how close to the truth her fictional character is to the reality of her boyfriend’s life. On the other hand, there is an ex-girlfriend who chooses to hide the existence of her daughter from her father for fear that he might be a destructive influence. Finally, there is a therapist, who has conflicting emotions concerning her patient, on one hand desiring him while, on the other, she knows that he might not be the man for her on account of his being a gangster. Chan also has feelings for his therapists, and it is only in her presence that he feels secure enough to be able to sleep. When not in her presence, Chan has insomnia, due to the burden which he has had to carry in the ten years in which he has been a mole within the Triad organization. The use of these three women in the film is done to show the various complications which the two main characters have to go through in their daily lives. They further provide an insight on the individual characters of these two men, and what inspires these women to behave towards them as they do.

This film dares its audience to decide who the hero and the villain is because even those women, with whom these men are involved, do not know exactly what they are about. Despite the fact that they work hand in hand with their coworkers on a daily basis, none of these coworkers even has an inkling that these men are moles in their respective organizations. They accept these two characters as they are with no questions being asked, their enigmatic behavior being taken for granted. The film helps to show just how alluring the life of the underworld can be, and how one can be tempted to go in and never want to leave it again. What makes this film special is not its plot, but the way the two leads starring in it portray the characters. Lau is shown to be a man who would have made a different choice in life had the responsibility of being a mole for the Triads, among the police, not been thrust upon him when he was younger. Lau is seen as a tortured man whose life has been chosen for him, and there is no way for him to get out of this purgatory. The character of Chan, on the other hand, is made to be the mirror reflection of Lau, whose duties as a mole among the Triads have been placed on him at a young age. Chan is also shown to undergo mental torture as he struggles with the temptation of forgetting himself and getting absorbed into the underworld. The lives of these two moles are seen as a form of torture for both of them, and it is this shared torture that makes them so similar. Their motivation is to do the best they can in order to survive in situations which the fates have thrust upon them. Both of these men have done extremely well in the situations within which they have been placed. Lau quickly rises through the ranks of the police, while Chan also rises among the Triads to become one of the most trusted lieutenants of Hon, the Triad boss. Therefore, neither of these men can be described as being either good or evil, and instead, they can be said to be surviving.

Since the film is in Cantonese with English subtitles, there are certain aspects of the film which are lost in translation. This is because it is difficult to translate certain idioms, which are humorous in one language, to another language, as in most cases, the humor tends to be lost. Despite this fact, however, the movie can be said to be excellent, and perhaps may encourage those who would like to get the whole picture of the movie to want to learn Cantonese, the language in which it was made. This is indeed a bold film which deals with the lives of two men whose lives are going in a way which they did not expect. It focuses on their desire to break away from the chains that are holding them back, despite the fact that if they do so, then it might lead to their destruction. One can also say that the film is a tragedy because when the truth about the two men comes to light, it is too late for either to redeem himself. Although Chan accomplishes his mission within the Triad organization by helping in the destruction of Hon, he still ends up getting killed by one of the moles planted by Hon in the police. Moreover, despite the fact that both men strive to redeem themselves through the destruction of the Triad organization, none of them gets the redemption because Chan gets killed while Lau ends up getting arrested when it is found out that he was the mole among the police for all the years that Chan was undercover. It can, therefore, be said that this film manages to capture the different aspects of human life. It shows the audience the futility of some of the actions that people take in their lives, teaching that one does not always get what they want. It is a film of revelation, as the two characters get to assess their lives in different situations and come to find what it is they desire in their lives. The plot, as well as the skills displayed by the actors, has made the film one of the best to come out of Hong Kong.