Review of Why We Fight (2005) by V H — 14 Mar 2006

I've been seeing movies at a fairly rapid clip lately, and I keep ending up with a queue of films I've seen but haven't yet reviewed. Sometimes when I get home from the theater I jot down a few notes about what struck me the most about the movie. These often include stupid things which I think I might be able to make fun of, because let's face it, my reviews are all about making fun of stuff. Plus the occasional Brady Bunch reference.

So the point of all this is that I saw [i]Why We Fight[/i] over a week ago and I didn't bother to write any notes afterwards. And I've seen three other movies since then and bombarded my brain with all sorts of other crap too. So even if I had a good idea of why we fight when I walked out of the theater, I sure as heck don't anymore.

I do remember that the movie talked a lot about Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation in 1961. He warns against the increased influence of what he calls the "military-industrial complex", which is the relationship between industry and the military. Against this historical backdrop, the film jumps to current questions about Dick Cheney and his relationship with defense contractor Halliburton. So I guess that's one answer to the titular question. We fight because war helps some rich people get a lot richer.

The movie includes a bunch of brief man-on-the-street interviews where the camera is thrust into the faces of random citizens, often children, who appear to be attending Fourth of July parades. "Why do we go to war?" they're asked. Invariably the answer is "freedom" or some other vague notion that they were taught in school. So I guess that's a second answer to the question. We fight for "freedom".

Yet another possible theory postulated by this film is that neo-conservative think-tanks, like the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), have become a really strong influence on our government now that members like Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz are in positions of power. The goal of the PNAC is "American global leadership". The group advocates preemptive strikes to protect our interests, like the one against Iraq. So that's a third reason that we fight. It's all part of the neo-conservatives' master plan for world domination.

Even though I consider myself to be liberal, I hate George Bush, and I opposed the war in Iraq from the get go, I'm getting sick of these movies that present one-sided political views of the world. This one's kind of like a cross between [i]Fahrenheit 9/11[/i] and [i]The Corporation[/i], but without Michael Moore, who I'm also sick of and have been for a while.

The best parts of this film are when it leaves the political analysis behind and focuses on real people who are affected by the current war. One such story is about a Vietnam vet and retired New York City cop whose son was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. This guy is so angry and heartbroken at the same time that he feels he needs to do something to avenge his son's death and relieve his pain. To this end, he begins an email campaign to try to get his son's name written on one of the bombs that will be dropped in the Iraq war.

Eventually he's successful. He receives a reply with a photo of the inscribed bomb and the happy news that it destroyed its target. It's only later that he finds out that the link that Bush keeps implying exists between Iraq and al-Qaeda is pure fiction. So now the guy is even more upset because he feels like he was lied to by our president and that what he thought was the whole reason for the Iraq war [font=Times New Roman]?[/font] to retaliate against the evil-doers who perpetrated the 9-11 attacks [font=Times New Roman]?[/font] is a complete sham. Sure, the guy might've figured this out a lot sooner had he picked up a newspaper, but he's just too dejected for me to rip on.

So I guess I remember more about this movie than I thought I did, though I can't say that it really left any lasting impression on me. I remember feeling vaguely disheartened when it ended, same as I did after [i]Munich[/i] and [i]The Boys of Baraka[/i]. Whatever the real reasons are for why we fight, I don't think we're going to stop doing it any time soon.