Best Documentary Feature

I first heard the expression "military industrial complex" when I started University. It was probably quoted by a history professor or more likely, a sociology prof. I didn't really understand it but it rolled off the tongue nicely if I wanted to impress my friends with what I learned in school. Why We Fight is a new documentary that looks at the history of the United States since 1945. It’s produced and directed by Eugene Jarecki. It's premise is simple: that the economic life of the US is driven by the need for a "war economy". And since the United States is at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Why We Fight is a timely reminder of how the American military drives the economic, social and political life of the country.
 
I highly recommend this film. It's a coherent and serious study of the military industrial complex as stated by Eisenhower in his farewell address in 1960. The interviews feature scholars, experts and journalists on both sides of the political spectrum. We hear from Gwynne Dyer, William Kristal, Richard Perle, Charles Lewis, Gore Vidal and John Eisenhower, son of the late President. But more importantly, we follow the lives of two New Yorkers: Wilton Sekzer and William Solomon.
 
Sekzer is a Vietnam Veteran and retired New York Police Officer. Solomon is a 23 year-old man who has no job, no money and no diploma. The contrasting lives of these men truly reflects the pulse of the "complex". Two men who believed that fighting for one's country is an honourable and just choice. Two men who join the army because their President said it was necessary to maintain freedom from tyranny. Sekzer, who lost his son at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, experiences a range of emotions: personal loss, anger, revenge. He was a man who believed what his President told him, until the United States invaded Iraq. Sekzer truly learns that war is futile and that he was exploited for his blind loyalty.
 
Solomon is a lost soul. He has few friends and no direction in life. But he finds encouragement at the local US Army recruitment office and is quick to sign up because they guarantee him an education and a job flying helicopters.

In this documentary people are seduced by simplistic rhetoric, jingoism and false hope from a continuing government commercial with slogans that offer superficial status. Why We Fight is the deconstruction of that penetrating message. Go see it.

That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.