2005 documentaryRating: 17/20
Plot: An investigation of American military action in the 20th and 21st Centuries and what really drives the Uncle Sam War Machine.
You know what surprised me most about this whole thing? How reasonable and intelligent John McCain came across. I don't follow politics at all because I'm that type of American citizen. You know, an American citizen. But the snippets of McCain and decisions that he's responsible for (like, say, who his running mate should be) left me questioning the guy's integrity and intelligence. He was a voice of reason on that side of the political fence. My favorite moment in this documentary, by the way, was watching McCain's reaction to news that the vice president was on the phone for him. His eye started twitching, and it looked like he was going to have a heart attack or something.
I blame the Greatest Generation for this whole mess, by the way. I'm also the type of American citizen who, though unapologetically uninformed (probably even misinformed), likes to point fingers.
This is a ton of information, like director Eugene Jarecki backed a dump truck to my lap and unleashed. I thought the structure of it all was pretty complex. That might just be because I wasn't able to turn my mind back on completely after watching Seed of Chucky for the other shane-movies blog movie club--The Urine Couch AM Movie Club--that only the ghost of Gene Siskel, the ghost of Gene Shalit's mustache, and hookers and drug dealers are invited to participate in. And yes, I worry that there are now two too many movie clubs on this blog. Anyway, I ended up liking the structure of this documentary. I think I was expecting chronology when Jarecki was giving me themes. The ideas of revenge, imperialism, government secrecy, oil, and all that are all pretty standard stuff that even a dumb guy like me is aware of. Where this gets really dark and disturbing is when it looks at think tank the propaganda techniques used by politicians to dupe the American people, the propaganda techniques used to get poor or middle-class kids to join that American military machine, and the benefits of war to all those corporations. The idea of America becoming a "New Rome" was mentioned at the beginning and then again at the end, and that's scary. I know as much about history as I do about politics, but I know what happened to Rome--a guy on an elephant burned it down and now nobody dares speak Latin in public venues. Or something like that. So is it inevitable that somebody will burn us down and create a world in which nobody wants to speak American? This also did a good job of explaining the whole Saddam Hussein thing. I knew the bare bones of that situation, but this made it a lot more clear for me. I always suspected that Donald Rumsfeld was more evil than Hussein anyway.
Jarecki keeps returning to Eisenhower's (apparently a president) speech which nicely holds this documentary together. "God help this country when somebody sits at the desk who doesn't know as much about the military as I do." Eerily prophetic, no? And the narrative that surfaces in this flood of information shows that "disastrous rise of misplaced power" that Eisenhower warned against.
Also holding things together in a very touching way: the interviews with the father who lost his son on 9/11. I really felt sorry for that guy, and you can't really blame him for any of the emotions that he had or how he acted upon them in his story. The sad irony that his son's name was on a bomb that essentially did the same thing that tore his heart out has to be something that eats at him every day. The other personal touch this documentary adds is the story of the kid who is joining the air force. I kept waiting for that to end in some big moment, but it never did. He was just absorbed. I don't know. Maybe that is a big moment.
Another irony: We live in a time when technology and the way the media works should make things more transparent to the average Joe, that plumber who Sarah Palin and John McCain kept talking about, but because those average citizens are as apathetic and naive as I am, they are somehow even more in the dark. God help this country when its citizens are too busy watching videos of kitties playing keyboards to care about what is going on with their leaders and our country's international policies.
Speaking of kitten keyboard videos, sorry for the tardiness with this Oprah Movie Club post.
I really like how much thought you gave this and reading your take. I'm fairly cynical to begin with, and "Why We Fight" simply galvanized a lot of my views on our government and where our country is going. The film also throws light on how we are perceived by the rest of the world, and why.
ReplyDeleteEisenhower's speech(prophecy)is chilling and amazing, and the fact that it was completely ignored by the public is depressing. When the film shows the globe and the years in which America has been militarily involved (almost constantly) it was shocking. When Ike compares the cost of a weapon to something useful to our society it is really depressing. When Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et al. are smugly deceiving the increasingly impotent and ignorant American people it is enraging. When patriotism and the whole freedom lie are used to destroy other peoples and the lives of our own citizens, only to increase wealth and power of corporations and leaders, it is sad.
"Why We Fight" doesn't preach but shows the lies, sheer waste, and tragedy from every angle through great interviews (loved McCain's honesty and especially Chalmers Johnson and the retired policeman). I also was very moved by the Iraq interviews. It is to easy to forget that war means killing and maiming parents and children that have done nothing at all to deserve it. You were right that there is a huge amount of information, but the style (score, mixing of time periods and locations, choice of subjects)helps convey a mood where the viewer can feel the importance and tragedy of the subject matter, and can also discern the truth behind the deceptions. The saddest thought I have after watching this is wondering what our country and our legacy could be if we focused on the improvement of life, but knowing the apathy and ignorance of most people (and the amoral greed and cruelty of others) make a different future very unlikely. "Why We Fight" is a pebble dropped in an ocean of indifference. An 18.
I watched this knowing it would just piss me off....and of course I was right. I knew all about Eisenhowers farewell address before I saw this, but instead of thinking what a cool guy Ike was to know all this was going to happen, I think hes a dick for LETTING it happen. Bay of Pigs was an Eisenhower plan....Vietnams first "advisers" were sent under Eisenhowers watch. The entire Cold War and its incredible financial cost was really going under Ike. He knew all these things the military-Industrial complex can do, and even though he was the most powerful military man since Napoleon and then an amazingly popular president, he didnt put in one safeguard, one preventive measure to protect us from this monolith he knew was there. BLAH.
ReplyDeleteIts one of those documentaries that are very well done, and extremely informative, but also about a subject that I hate hearing about, because its all frustration and impotence over not being able to do a thing about the miserable scumhole the Pentagon and Washington have become.
Its the ultimate tragedy because there really seems to be zero hope of anything ever changing.
I give it a 16...it certainly deserves higher, but I am thinking about it strictly from my own perspective.