Since we ran out of time last week, I wanted to see what movie trailer you selected for last week’s exercise. Also tell me a little bit about it.
Let me start:
Watch the trailer for Errol Morris’s new documentary, The Unknown Known.
This film is a series of interviews with Donald Rumsfeld, former secretary of defense under GW Bush, who sold the American public on invading Iraq in 2003. It could be understood as a sequel to Morris’s 2003 film, The Fog of War, about another former Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, who was in charge during the Vietnam War.
It would be foolish to think that any documentary, including this one, doesn’t have an argument. Indeed, I would go as far as to say that a documentary without a point to make is a waste of time. This trailer makes a compelling argument that engages your interest, regardless of how you may regard the eleven year–long conflict. As is usual with a film like this, with limited commercial appeal, it will be released in New York and Los Angeles this week and expand to other markets, depending on how strong the box office figures are.
If Morris’s past films are any indication, this film should do well in the awards circuit, including an Academy Award nomination.