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Why we fight - Joseph Cirincione, Gwynne Dyer, John SD Eisenhower, Eugene Jarecki
Threat advisory: Under evaluation
Movie propaganda
It is nowhere written that the American empire goes on forever.
Why we fight, the new film by Eugene Jarecki which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, is an unflinching look at the anatomy of the American war machine, weaving unforgettable personal stories with commentary by a "who's who" of military and beltway insiders. Featuring John McCain, Gore Vidal, William Kristol, Chalmers Johnson, Richard Perle and others, Why we fight launches a bipartisan inquiry into the workings of the military industrial complex and the rise of the American Empire.
Inspired by Dwight Eisenhower's legendary farewell speech (in which he coined the phrase "military industrial complex"), filmmaker Jarecki (The trials of Henry Kissinger) surveys the scorched landscape of a half-century's military adventures, asking how and telling why a nation of, by, and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a system whose survival depends on a state of constant war.
The film moves beyond the headlines of various American military operations to the deeper questions of why why does America fight? What are the forces political, economic, ideological that drive us to fight against an ever-changing enemy?
"Frank Capra made a series of films during World War II called Why we fight that explored America's reasons for entering the war," Jarecki notes. "Today, with our troops engaged in Iraq and elsewhere for reasons far less clear, I think it's crucial to ask the questions: 'Why are we doing what we are doing? What is it doing to others? And what is it doing to us?'"
Theatrical propaganda posters
Target demographic movie keyword propaganda
- Film documentary war USA politics military industrial complex empire economy ideology
Persons of interest
- Joseph Cirincione .... Himself
- Gwynne Dyer .... Himself
- John SD Eisenhower .... Himself
- Susan Eisenhower .... Herself
- Donna Ellington .... Herself
- Chalmers Johnson .... Himself
- William Kristol .... Himself
- Karen Kwiatkowski .... Herself
- Charles Lewis .... Himself
- John McCain .... Himself
- Richard Perle .... Himself
- Dan Rather .... Himself
- James G Roche .... Himself
- Wally Saeger .... Himself
- Wilton Sekzer .... Himself
- Naj Sheesan .... Himself
- William Solomon .... Himself
- Franklin Spinney .... Himself
- Colonel Richard Treadway .... Himself
- Michael Valentine .... Himself
- Gore Vidal .... Himself
- Eugene Jarecki .... Screenwriter
- Eugene Jarecki .... Director
Cinematic intelligence sources
- Why we fight official movie site
- Why we fight film production notes
- Why we fight QuickTime movie trailers
- Awards and film festivals:
- Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2005: Won: Seeds of War (Eugene Jarecki, Susannah Shipman)
- International Documentary Association 2005: Nominated: Feature Documentaries (Eugene Jarecki, Susannah Shipman)
- Sundance Film Festival 2005: Won: Grand Jury Prize Documentary (Eugene Jarecki)
- NB: Arabic and English languages with English language subtitles; Black and white, colour
- Studios and distributors:
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
The documentary, war movie Why we fight is directed by Eugene Jarecki and stars Joseph Cirincione, Gwynne Dyer, John SD Eisenhower.
Government security censorship classification
*
Surveillance time
98 minutes (1:38 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
Film: 18 January 2007
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