Review of Why We Fight (2005) by Darren W — 03 Jun 2008

This is one of the most important issues facing the US, and everyone should understand the way war has become big business. I wanted this doc to be better though. It needed to be stronger and dig deeper.

That being said, I may have just felt this way because I already had a base of knowledge on the subject. The film starts out simply addressing the subject of war, and doing a vox populi on why we fight.

This drags on for a little too long, and we almost spend as much time on this as we do delving into arms manufacturers and think tanks. In a similar respect, the momentum takes a serious downturn towards the end.

Just when it should have been picking up to leave people furious enough to want to do something about this problem. On a more positive note the production value was extremely high, with some really nice photography, and interesting interview lighting.

There was a really wide array of interview subjects that covered just about every side of the story imaginable, all of which were credible and interesting. The editing was really nice, and I loved the way we cut between the expose and different people's stories throughout the entire film.

Maybe most impressive of all, was the way this was kept a non-partisan issue. Fingers were not pointed at either republicans or democrats exclusively, they were pointed at everyone, which is exactly the correct thing to do on this matter.

The moment to watch for here is when John McCain is chastising Vice President Cheney for giving defense contracts to his former employer Halliburton saying he would've launched an investigation, when his secretary tells him the Vice President is on the phone.

McCain's "deer in the headlights" look is priceless. While I can applaud this film for its quality production and storytelling, and objectivity; unfortunately the emotional appeal was not strong enough to do what it needed to, which is advocate change.