Why We Fight

2005 "It Is Nowhere Written That The American Empire Goes On Forever"
8| 1h38m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 20 January 2005 Released
Producted By: Charlotte Street Films
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight
Synopsis

Is American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life? Jarecki's shrewd and intelligent polemic would seem to give an affirmative answer to each of these questions.

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Reviews

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Executscan Expected more
Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
L Stoltzfus Why We Fight explores exactly that: as a nation, why are still fighting? Piecing together archival footage from everything from Eisenhower to news coverage of the March 19, 2003 bombing of Iraq, Jarecki frames a picture of the United States with it's own public documents, personas, and new media materials; his exploration of the profitability of war and the puppet string manipulations that he claims dictate the United States leave the viewer struck with the distinct feeling that something is rotten here.Beginning by asking the question that many Americans asked after 9/11, "Why do they hate us?" Jarecki presents a case strongly suggesting that that is exactly what the war hungry, corporate American government wants you to ask. Not only does it downright accuse the American government of being in bed with the corporate defense and weapon industry, it also speaks to a lack of general understanding of the United States history, implying that ignorance makes for easy control. Gore Vidal even states in the film, "We live here in the United States of Amnesia. No one remembers anything before Monday morning. Everything is a blank. They have no history." And by using plenty of close-up, eye level shots in various interviews with elected government officials and experts, the viewer can not deny that Jarecki establishes credibility with both the natural, framing of the shots and the shear notoriety of the individuals interviewed. Sound plays a huge role in this film; the diegetic war sounds in the archival footage and the one on one personal interviews with Iraqi citizens resonate in the viewer's mind long after the credits. Jarecki also incorporates quite a bit of intentional juxtaposition with his nondiegetic sound choices, playing poignant songs and instrumentals while crosscutting back to footage of war and death.This film left me sad and angry and once again questioning the state of this country, which, since of the release of this film in 2005, has only gotten more complicated. Adding undeniably emotional interviews with the father of a 9/11 victim and others and shots of children suffering after bombings in Iraq, Jarecki adds a personal element to the film that sticks with the viewer. Overall, the film is engaging, worthwhile, and thought-provoking, but good luck holding on to hope for the future after watching it.
jo pezz (openers) A carefully prepared piece of propaganda, but what politically inspired piece of work isn't? Simply because it is propaganda doesn't mean it can be dismissed outright.THERE IS TRUTH IN THIS MOVIE! Whether it fits the people on the left or the right, the dangers American President Eisenhauer spoke of have come to pass. There is no money to be made in supplying an army that never uses its equipment. The fact that politicians lie, cheat and grow rich is nothing new. The tragedy is that someone else has to point it out to you.I still recall the slogan "My Country, Right Or Wrong" coming out of the USA. Unfortunately, far too many people have failed to grow past that kind of mental subjugation.As a companion to this film, I strongly recommend "Fog Of War", based on the experiences of former US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara (Kennedy/Johnson/Vietnam).Why do we fight? Same reason as always...Profit
alicecbr I had to watch this movie on the Internet yesterday from a site in England. That should give you some idea of how much censorship we now have in 'the land of the free and the home of the brave'. I'm in Boston and so far, there's no distributor for this movie, not even Landmark. We have to have meetings in our homes to show it.Ironic, that the Republican Eisenhower, a true conservative and brilliant mind who DIDN'T hide out in Alabama during the war, warns us in his understated way of the dangers from the 'military/industrial complex'. This complex has now grown to include our federal government in on the continuing cycle of war. And this point, the movie so aptly makes.I worked for Raytheon and we were sure to co-opt our military Program Manager by letting him know that he had a job with Raytheon after retirement from the military, a practise many 'defense'/war contractors follow. So, no wonder the Patriot missile didn't work at first. Our tests were then and are now programmed to succeed. Of course, they fail in the field, for which I used to be happy, not wanting more death for our enemy dujour. Now, however, as I see the thousands of innocents dying because of these dumb bombs so highly touted as 'smart', I regret my part in designing weapons for our 'defense'.We are now involved in Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, a policy so well pointed out here, that will keep our defense/war-mongering corporations profitable until we reap the eventual consequences of national evil. The allusions made to the Roman empire are actually too few for my liking. And there are VERY few allusions to the Germany of the 30s, not even to indicate that Bush's grandaddy helped finance the Luftwaffe factories until shut down by a more virtuous federal government than we have now.We are indeed the arms merchants of the world, and it is not an accident, but a plan. We spend more on 'defense' than on anything else in our budget, and yet we are the mightiest in the world. This movie makes the point very well. As well as the hypocrisy that accompanies it, which of course is why you will have a hard problem seeing the movie.Better, get the original Capra movies and watch them in sequence with this one. Makes the point even better. Instead of fighting the nationalized evil of Germany as we did in the 40s, my country, the freedom-loving U.S.A., is now the epitome of nationalized evil. We lie to our children, as the Sullivan boy is lied to in this movie by the recruiters, and sacrifice them on the altar of greed. If you can stand it, watch 'Munich', 'Syriana' and 'Why We Fight' in sequence. Clear pattern of a degenerating republic at the national level and extremely Biblical in proving that "He who sews the wind reaps the whirlwind." The educational system dies, and with it, the sheeple's power to analyze the lies coming from the totalitarian corporate owners. I"ll be interested in observing whether this comment even makes it to the IMDb database. Viva Maria! (1965) This would be funny if we weren't being Bombed Ourselves, 13 July 2005(This comment was deleted by IMDb based on an abuse report filed by another user) Brigitte Bardot makes a very convincing bomber, political assassin as she learns about bomb-making and executing the blasts from her father all over Europe and Central America. It's a play on the Irish hatred of the British.They just blow some troops up, and melt into the surroundings, much as our modern terrorists do.......and with a child like innocence about them. Malle makes fun of a lot of old-time westerns with the hero (Hamilton) dramatically dying for his love. Jeanne Moreau is quite a dancer, which I never realized before, as she and Brigitte 'invent' the striptease.This was in glorious technicolor and the naivete and innocence of the time when this movie was made can't help but sadden you as you realize how low we have sunk in this oil-crazy world where the mad dictator (Bush, not Hitler this time) invades any oil-rich countries he wants to under the guise of 'bringing democracy' to the people (althouth we have to kill them to do it). If our time wasn't such a Keystone Cop melodrama in itself, I'd make more fun of this movie. But it's fairly realistic, if you judge by what goes for reality these days.
ResoluteGrunt Part of the problem with this documentary is that it uses selective information to support its pre-existing intent. There were even several times when I thought the film was produced by duplicitous Frenchmen. For example, the film does not adequately explain the role of the United States, and most especially that of the US military, in providing the lion's share of the defense of Old Europe over the past half century under NATO cover. This very long and colossal American commitment, which inexplicably continues today, fifteen years after it should have ended, allowed Old Europeans the freedom to evolve a very different view of military matters than did Americans -- sort of like children don't begin to comprehend all the sacrifices made by their parents on their behalf. I myself spent a total of fifteen years of my life in Old Europe, including West Berlin during its darkest days, as a professional American soldier, and I very rarely enjoyed any of it. On the contrary, while the Old Europeans were soaking up boatloads of American tourist dollars, I, with two university degrees and four language fluencies, was usually considered a paid servant of the privileged Old Europeans. The fifteen years I spent in other regions of the world were immeasurably more rewarding and worthwhile, both to me and to my nation. Almost all of the problems I encountered elsewhere in the world had direct Old European roots.Furthermore, it is today well known among American military circles that one of the largest defense contractors in the world doing major business inside the United States today, with an astounding 23 different major facilities, is a German-French consortium that seeks to make up in the United States what profits cannot be made from stingy Old European governments. The French government, which did not have to place anything on the line in Cold War NATO when it was needed most, is today a major shareholder in that Continental defense consortium, which also sells major advanced military hardware to countries like China -- sort of like the free-riding French and the Germans playing both ends against the middle, as usual to their enormous benefit. Such little known matters have long been facts of life for knowledgeable Americans, facts which make the overall picture about "American militarism" enormously more complicated than the average observer might imagine.The net result is that Old Europeans do, in fact, want a very powerful US military, but only one on their tight leash, using weapons they manufacture and sell, and only to defend Old European interests - as their free lackey that keeps on giving and giving. Everything else the US does as a fleeting temporary single superpower on the world stage can be routinely condemned, safe in the knowledge that their citizens do not know the whole story, nor do they care to know the whole story as long as they are safe and secure and with the knowledge that a responsible adult America never returns their criticism. (For cowardly Old Europeans, the US is the safest whipping boy in human history.) A major Old European political task since 1990 has been to somehow create situations and/or fears which require the US to continue carrying the burden of conventional Continental defense long after the Old Europeans should have assumed all of that requirement alone, plus finally stepping up to their just responsibilities in the Third World and most especially in the Africa they so ruthlessly exploited.American military leaders know that Old European and American self-interests began diverging dramatically as soon as the Warsaw Pact imploded in 1989, and that they can no longer count on continental Old Europeans to make an equitable contribution to their mutual defenses, regardless of that anachronism still inexplicably called "NATO", other than just enough embarrassing tokenism to earn them a seat at the American military command table in a tail-wagging-the dog tragicomedy – mainly to impress their citizens back home. Due to very different and evolving self-interests, such a "mutual" concept has become for the US solely a one-way street, with everyone else except the British playing silly little vote-getting games for their individual domestic consumption. However, major internal demographic changes rapidly taking place in the United States, plus external political changes rapidly evolving in Asia, will inevitably wean the Americans away from a knee-jerk commitment to defend Old Europe and force their government to view other regions of the world as justifiably of much greater importance in the coming century. Old European and American interests are gradually and inexorably diverging, and will inevitably continue to diverge at ever greater speed. Old Europe was the last century's story; to knowledgeable Americans the Continent is rapidly becoming ancient history no longer germane in today's world. It is long past the time for the Europeans to begin standing on their own feet, without the "permanent" American crutch, and whipping boy.Most naive Americans still think they have "allies", but this is mostly a political illusion. Everyone loves the underdog fighting his way up, but everyone always loves to hate, and blame, the Top Dog - and most especially one that never bites back. As long as America remains the Top Dog, she must always be fully prepared to go it alone, wherever and whenever necessary. A rising China, not Old Europe or America, will irreversibly alter global dynamics, and soon, while Old Europe continues its long, slow, inevitable, self-made decline. Until the US relinquishes its title as single superpower, it must responsibly assume that it has no friends, and that literally everyone is a potential enemy. Such natural human stories have been repeated a thousand times throughout the history of mankind. And most American military students know well the story of the British Empire."Why We Fight" is worth viewing, but only if the viewer knows and keeps the whole in proper perspective and understands the film-maker's intent.