Pre-viewing Exercise
Both The Fog of War and Capturing the Friedmans, like all but the most
impressionistic/experimental documentaries, are concerned with telling
stories. They are narratives and alongside the imperative to explain
must also seek to intrigue and entertain an audience.
Beginnings
Click here for a table
that sets out the opening minute and a half of The Fog of War. Print
the page out. Your task is to consider the expectations it raises and
questions its sets up. The task is in two parts. This section should
be attempted before you have seen the documentary.
Use the right-hand column to record any feelings or questions the individual
sequences in this short opening raise in you. Also try to evaluate, on
slender evidence admittedly, the impression that you get of McNamara.
What factors contribute most, at this point to your wanting to know
more, to your excitement or puzzlement?
What does seeming to see behind the scenes on McNamara, engaged in the
preparations before public statements, suggest about the intentions of
this documentary lifting the lid on past events? |
Pre-viewing
exercise
