In The Fog of War, Robert McNamara searches his soul on the events that defined 20th century America, often with strong emotion. The result is as much a moral history as a political memoir. One of the most powerful men of his generation, McNamara was an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel in World War II, president of Ford Motor Company in the late ’50s, Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson, and President of the World Bank. He was the strategist behind such events as the fire bombing of Tokyo, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the buildup in Vietnam.

This is sensitive stuff. To promote the movie, do you present it objectively, like a news report? Do you assemble screen clips to make a teaser? Those would certainly be safe choices—but site designers Thomas Romer, Rachel Bell, and Chandler McWilliams took their cue from McNamara, and presented the material emotionally, in a way that comments on the content.

On launch, McNamara steps into center screen as a silly stop-action, collaged animation to talk about his earliest memories. At first, this feels disrespectful. But as you roll through the years, and listen to him speak of the horrors of war, the animation takes on new meaning. McNamara’s moral conflicts suggest that he felt he’d been swept along by the tides of history—a puppet of exigencies. The animation becomes a figure of pathos and anger rather than ridicule.

The design continues to enrich the content. Using a retro design language in brown, black, and white, they developed a circular timeline that looks like a radio dial or analog instrument panel, helping you step back in time. A central dial presents color video clips; a circular band holds a still, black-and-white image; lozenges projecting from the dial give key dates; and a ring of tiny buttons links you to additional content. On the right, a talk-balloon graphic over a small, grainy picture of McNamara lists his jobs and titles in each era. You don’t have to click through window after window, or scroll around: You stay in one place, and the core content comes to you. That’s a lot of richness in a single screen.