“Why We Fight” is a documentary about the military-industrial complex of today, but it casts back to the past for context on the subject. The title, for instance: “Why We Fight” was the title for a series of film made by Frank Capra during World War II, after he enlisted in the war effort and turned his talents to producing government films explaining the war effort.
They were propaganda, albeit well-made and stirring. Capra wasn’t messing around; he’d seen the Nazi propaganda film “Triumph of the Will” made by Leni Riefenstahl and was terrified at its power.
Director Eugene Jarecki, who made the new “Why We Fight,” isn’t messing around either. This is a worried, angry film, clearly taking aim at the cozy relationship between government, the military, and business.
Jarecki frames his film with the remarkable farewell address delivered by President Dwight Eisenhower on Jan. 17, 1961. Eisenhower, the architect of D-Day and the overseer of the Allied war effort in WWII, could hardly be accused of being soft, or “against the troops,” as the charge frequently is today. Yet he made the centerpiece of his final presidential speech a warning about the “military-industrial complex” – he coined the term – and how it might severely alter American life, to the point of dictating policy.
Jarecki’s film clearly believes that in serving the military-industrial complex, the United States has allowed the defense industry to drive policy. One of the talking heads in the film observes that a defense contractor has been elected as vice president, referring to Dick Cheney and his former job at Halliburton. Even Republican Sen. John McCain admits of the apparent conflict of interest, “It looks bad.”
There are a few dissenting voices. Familiar talking heads such as William Kristol (from the right) make stabs against the likes of Gore Vidal (from the left). These arguments, so omnipresent in the cable-news vortex, are tired.
| Complex: Eugene Jarecki’s documentary questions the relationship between the defense industry and government policy, and sees President Dwight Eisenhower’s speech about the “military-industrial complex” as a prediction of the world that came to pass. This angry film ranges a bit, but some of its threads are powerful.
Rated: PG-13 rating is for subject matter Now showing: Neptune |
A more fruitful topic is the rise of think tanks, and their influence on politicians. As someone in the film points out, U.S. policy is now being shaped and defined by people who are in no way accountable to voters.
Jarecki is so intent on persuasion that he ranges somewhat clumsily across different turf. One ongoing story is about a New York cop whose son died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11; his fervent support of a war against terror has paled after the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
This police officer’s story might have made a good documentary by itself. “Why We Fight” stirs up provocative questions, even if it bulges out in different directions. It also makes you wonder what President Eisenhower would say right now.
Sen. John McCain is featured in “Why We Fight.”
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