By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Eugene Jarecki
Country: canada, denmark, france, united_kingdom, united_states
Year: 2006
Running time: 95
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436971/
Michael says: “As President Eisenhower left office, he gave a cautionary speech about the United States turning into a military industrial complex. Eugene Jareckis powerful documentary interweaves this startlingly prescient speech with examples of how we ignored our departing Presidents warnings and found ourselves expanding an American Empire. While clearly coming down against the merging of the military and corporate industry, Jarecki does allow proponents of the state of our nation a fair shot at having their say. Its hard to judge this type of movie that so strongly pushes our political buttons on their merits as a film, but WHY WE FIGHT fares better than many that preceded it. While touching on some of the same ground as THE COPORATION, it also suffers the same overload of information. Leaving the theatre I was both numb and disgusted with being American. 3 ½ cats”
Bruce says: “WHY WE FIGHT is successful on many counts. It informs, it entertains and it ties lots of disparate thoughts together as it makes its point. President Eisenhower’s swan song in 1961 was a speech in which he warned against the perils of a military-industrial complex. In using the war in Iraq as an example, writer/director Eugene Jarecki illustrates how prophetic Eisenhower’s warning truly was.
“Mixing talking heads, an arsenal of archival footage and grotesque images from Iraq which are banned from the nightly news, Jarecki begins his film with a leisurely pace and picks things up -developing a sense of urgency – as he rolls along. Jarecki mixes in lots of cultural references which add to the flavor of the film without distracting from his basic premise. Music from such varied artists as The Ink Spots, Ray Coniff, Jr. and Bob Dylan add flavor to the material.
“Richard Pearle, Paul Wolfowitz, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and right-wingers such as William Kristol all extol the virtues of fighting for democracy and freedom as the American way. Questioning our government’s actions are Gore Vidal, John McCain, Joseph Cirincione (Carnegie Endowment for Peace), John D. Eisenhower, Susan Eisenhower, Karen Kwiatkowski, and Chalmers Johnson. A retired New York City cop adds a human touch as he slowly realizes that the war in Iraq is a sham and has done nothing to avenge his son’s 9/11 death.
“WHY WE FIGHT presents evidence that our country is not the democracy we think it is. My high school civics teacher used to repeat ‘The price of liberty is eternal vigilance,’ at least once a week. Those very words are repeated near the end of WHY WE FIGHT. Corporate greed and Congressional complicity has usurped the power of the people. We live in a country run by special interest groups which are imperialistic, not at all democratic. Why are Americans so complacent?
“Most alarming is the discussion of ‘blowback,’ a term coined by the CIA in 1954 and used as a euphemism for ‘the unintended consequences of the US government’s international activities that have been kept secret from the American people.’ But then what we don’t know can’t hurt us, can it? America is a country which has 4% of the world’s population yet consumes 40% of its resources. Our 800 defense installations around the world ensure the status quo. We are building 14 permanent bases in Iraq so any talk of pulling out is nothing short of a lie. Blaming the Bush Administration for all our ills is foolish, as every president since Eisenhower has fostered imperialism and looked the other way as our democracy has eroded.
“The frustrating part of viewing WHY WE FIGHT is that it offers no solutions after clearly stating the problem. 4.5 cats”