Why We Fight (2005)
BBC Storyville

Description

Named after the series of short films by legendary director Frank Capra that explored America’s reasons for entering World War II, Why We Fight surveys a half-century of military conflicts, asking how – and answering why – a nation of, by and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a government system whose survival depends on an Orwellian state of constant war.

Collected reviews and ratings

10 Reel | Tim Knight

In light of the anti-American sentiment spreading around the world, Jarecki's brilliant film ultimately raises questions that need to be addressed by the "alert and knowledgeable citizenry" Eisenhower referred to in his speech. It ranks with The Fog of War as one of the best political documentaries of the last few years.
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9.0 Amazon user reviews

This is a powerful and disturbing film, examining how the military-industrial complex (which President Eisenhower warned us about upon departing office in 1961) has twisted American's foreign policy for its own ends.
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8.8 Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

Jarecki is not the kind of documentarian to tell us the war in Iraq is a mess. His purpose is to show us how we got there. And he does it the hard way, with nothing up his sleeve but the facts and the human cost of ignoring them.
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8.3 Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

Before it gets around to updating how the military-industrial complex actually works, Why We Fight asks us to revel in the irony that President Eisenhower now sounds like the sort of guy who would get tarred as a leader of the ''Hate America'' crowd.
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8.0 Salon.com | Andrew O'Hehir

A film that stands out for its passion, ambition and clarion-call sincerity, even amid the contemporary onslaught of political documentaries.
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8.0 Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

Of all the incendiary left-wing, anti-Bush screeds that have become the flavor of the decade for the American documentary community, Eugene Jarecki's "Why We Fight" is probably the best.
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8.0 PopMatters.com | Cynthia Fuchs

While it's probably speaking to many converted viewers, it's also asking questions for and of other viewers. These questions are genuine and profound, they go to the heart of how the U.S. works as a self-interested "nation" (whatever that term can mean) and an ideological force.
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7.5 TV Guide | Maitland McDonagh

Why We Fight is a deeply provocative piece of filmmaking.
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5.0 New York Times | Manohla Dargis

Calvin Coolidge famously said that the chief business of the American people is business; 80 years later, Mr. Jarecki forcefully, if not with wholesale persuasiveness, argues that our business is specifically war.
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