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2005 documentary, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival
Why We Fight

Why We Fight, directed by Eugene Jarecki, is a 2005 documentary film about the military–industrial complex. The title refers to the World War II-era eponymous propaganda movies commissioned by the U.S. Government to justify their decision to enter the war against the Axis Powers.

Imperialism

Cast and Crew

Dwight D. EisenhowerHimself
Karen KwiatkowskiHerself

Articles

More Anti-War Films, by Butler Shaffer, 21 May 2007
More short summaries of anti-war films with rankings (as a number of *'s [1-3]) in terms of importance, follow-up to "Memorial Day Alternative"
*** Why We Fight. A powerful documentary — in which Karen Kwiatkowski, Chalmers Johnson, and Gore Vidal carry most of the intellectual load — on the nature and history of the post—World War II American war-making system. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. WARNING! Do not confuse this with the pro-war series of the same name, produced during World War II by one of my un-favorite directors, Frank Capra.
Q & A with Karen Kwiatkowski, by Karen Kwiatkowski, Brian Lamb, Q&A, 2 Apr 2006
Video and transcript of the C-SPAN program; Lamb interviews Kwiatkowski about the 2003 invasion of Iraq and her participation in the 2005 film Why We Fight
Lamb: ... how did you get involved in a movie, "Why We Fight?"
Kwiatkowski Well, Eugene Jarecki, the director, called me up and said, "I'd like to come out and talk to you." This was in 2004 I think ... I said yes. He came out to the house and filmed ...
Lamb: I'm going to show a clip from the movie, and the reason this movie is making the rounds, it's gone through – I believe through HBO, it's now in theaters, ... and it's got people from both sides of the fence, although it seems to have a point of view ... [clip shown]
Kwiatkowski I think it's an honest appraisal of – particularly what the people are saying.
Why We Fight, by Justin Raimondo, 1 Feb 2006
Detailed review of the 2005 documentary Why We Fight
The theme of Eugene Jarecki's thoughtful yet hard-hitting documentary, Why We Fight, is inspired by President Dwight Eisenhower's famous farewell speech, in which he warns against the rising danger of militarism as an economic system and a mindset ... One of the best features of this narrative is that it gives the viewer a sense of historical perspective without indulging in boring lectures, and does it, furthermore, in a visually dramatic manner. ... A key sub-theme of Why We Fight is the business of militarism, and this is dramatized in a series of interviews, shots of military trade shows, and a visit to Raytheon.
Why We Fight, by Karen Kwiatkowski, 11 Feb 2006
Jarecki ... understands and clearly articulates how the care and feeding of the American military leviathan has been, and remains, a shared role of both ... Parties. ... what I really find inspiring ... is that we see the words, thoughts and deeds of the average American ... the backbone of this nation ... founts of common decency and morality.

Reviews

Is Capitalism Why We Fight?, by Gregory Bresiger, Mises Daily, 6 Apr 2006
Critical review of the theses presented in the 2005 documentary Why We Fight, also inquirying about topics omitted from the film
This is an interesting but sometimes flawed documentary on the war in Iraq and America's relentless empire building efforts around the globe. The United States, the producers of this work believe, is an empire in which an imperial presidency, backed by a military industrial complex, decides just about everything of consequence ... The secondary thesis of the documentary is that we Americans are in this mess because most of us don't study our history, no less the history of Rome ... Nevertheless, with these and other criticisms, I still believe "Why We Fight" is well worth one's time.

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Why We Fight (2005 film)" as of 3 Mar 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.