Death be proud?

A slew of celebrities died over the last ten days, but no true movie stars… unless you count Robert McNamara.* Granted, the erstwhile Secretary of Defense only appeared in one film, but in Errol Morris‘ THE FOG OF WAR, McNamara was brilliant portraying a Cabinet member so skilled at political rationalization he is almost oblivious to his own soul’s non-partisan torment. Of course, he was just playing himself, but in the poignant documentary’s climactic moments, you’d swear you were watching Lord Olivier‘s HAMLET instead, prepared to hear McNamara (m)utter: To die, to sleep… No more; and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to… ’tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. Wish granted, Bobby. Good night and good luck.

THE FOG OF WAR is Shakespeare-verite, the tragedy of an internally-conflicted power-broker whose best intentions are undone by his protracted and pernicious decision-making. If you have yet to see the movie, please, rent it and revisit history learning lessons both from America’s involvement in Vietnam and the architect of that disastrous donnybrook.

* Undisclosed causes, though I suspect the 93-year-old fell victim to Col. Mustard with a lead pipe in the Conservatory.