Why We Fight (2005)

Director:

Eugene Jarecki

Writer:

Eugene Jarecki (written by)

Genre:

Documentary | History | War

Tagline:

It is nowhere written that the American empire goes on forever.

Plot:

Is American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life? Jarecki's shrewd and intelligent polemic would seem to give an affirmative answer to each of these questions.

Plot Keywords:

9-11-attacks | Imperialism | American Imperialism | Military Industrial Complex | Warmongering

Awards:

4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Ken Adelman	...	Himself
John Ashcroft	...	Himself (archive footage)
Osama Bin Laden	...	Himself (archive footage)
George Bush	...	Himself (archive footage)
George W. Bush	...	Himself (archive footage)
Robert Byrd	...	Himself (archive footage)
Frank Capra	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dick Cheney	...	Himself (archive footage)
Joseph Cirincione	...	Himself
Bill Clinton	...	Himself (archive footage)
Anh Duong	...	Herself
Gwynne Dyer	...	Himself
Dwight D. Eisenhower	...	Himself (archive footage)
John S.D. Eisenhower	...	Himself
Susan Eisenhower	...	Herself
Donna Ellington	...	Herself
Dennis Hastert	...	Himself (archive footage)
Saddam Hussein	...	Himself (archive footage)
Chalmers Johnson	...	Himself
Lyndon Johnson	...	Himself (archive footage)
John F. Kennedy	...	Himself (archive footage)
Ayatollah Khomeini	...	Himself (archive footage)
William Kristol	...	Himself
Karen Kwiatkowski	...	Herself
Charles Lewis	...	Himself
John McCain	...	Himself
Richard Nixon	...	Himself (archive footage)
Bill O'Reilly	...	Himself (archive footage)
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi	...	Himself (archive footage)
Richard Perle	...	Himself
Colin Powell	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dan Rather	...	Himself
Ronald Reagan	...	Himself (archive footage)
Condoleezza Rice	...	Herself (archive footage)
James G. Roche	...	Himself
Donald Rumsfeld	...	Himself (archive footage)
Tim Russert	...	Himself (archive footage)
Wally Saeger	...	Himself
Wilton Sekzer	...	Himself
Naj Sheesan	...	Himself
William Solomon	...	Himself
Franklin Spinney	...	Himself
Joseph Stalin	...	Himself (archive footage)
Richard Treadway	...	Himself (as Col. Rich Treadway)
Harry S. Truman	...	Himself (archive footage)
Michael Valentine	...	Himself
Gore Vidal	...	Himself
Paul Wolfowitz	...	Himself (archive footage)

Directed by
Eugene Jarecki

Writing credits
Eugene Jarecki		(written by)

Produced by
Roy Ackerman	....	executive producer
Prudence Arndt	....	archive producer
Hans Robert Eisenhauer	....	executive producer
Julie Fischer	....	line producer: post-production
Nick Fraser	....	executive producer
Mette Hoffman Meyer	....	executive producer: TV 2/Danmark
Eugene Jarecki	....	producer
Alessandra Meyer	....	associate producer
Susannah Shipman	....	producer

Original Music by
Robert Miller

Cinematography by
Étienne Sauret
May Ying Welsh
Brett Wiley

Film Editing by
Nancy Kennedy

Production Management
Nora Colie	....	production manager
Samara Levenstein	....	post-production supervisor

Sound Department
Brian Buckley	....	additional sound
Scott Burnell	....	additional sound
Joe Caterini	....	sound re-recording mixer
Joe Caterini	....	supervising sound editor
Jim Gallup	....	additional sound
Matthew Haasch	....	dialogue editor (as Matt Haasch)
Sheila Louis	....	additional sound
Mark Mandler	....	additional sound
Peter Miller	....	sound
Tom Paul	....	sound re-recording mixer
Jeff Rowe	....	sound effects editor
Paul Rusnak	....	sound
Rob Silverthorne	....	additional sound (as Robert Silverthorne)
Robert Sullivan	....	additional sound (as Robert 'Sully' Sullivan)
Rufus Tureen	....	additional sound
Max Demetrio	....	assistant sound (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Brian Scott Benson	....	Inferno artist (as Brian Benson)
Tony Lee	....	graphics: Digifreak
Tony Lee	....	visual effects: Digifreak
Melinda Shopsin	....	additional graphics
Tamara Shopsin	....	additional graphics

Camera and Electrical Department
António Abreu	....	additional camera operator (as Anto io Abreu)
Dodge Billingsley	....	additional camera operator
Plinio Cabrera	....	additional camera operator
Sam Cullman	....	additional camera operator
Hayder Mousa Daffar	....	camera assistant (as Hayder Daffar)
Joe di Gennaro	....	additional camera operator
Tom Donatelli	....	camera assistant
Ed Dooley	....	additional camera operator
Douglass Gibran	....	camera assistant
Dan Hersey	....	additional camera operator
Will Knox	....	additional camera operator
Joe Lawler	....	additional camera operator
Christopher Li	....	additional camera operator (as Chris Li)
Rodney Mitchell	....	additional camera operator
Krista Pastecchi	....	additional camera operator
Yana Rafailova	....	additional camera operator
David Sperling	....	additional camera operator
Rick Weber	....	additional camera operator
Foster Wiley	....	additional camera operator

Animation Department
Benjamin Murray	....	stills animator

Editorial Department
Joseph Borges	....	assistant editor: high definition
Benjamin Murray	....	high definition editor
Scot Olive	....	colorist

Music Department
Elena Barere	....	musician: violin
Lori Cheatle	....	music consultant
Lori Cotler	....	musician: singer, mezzo-soprano
Jonathan Dinklage	....	musician: violin and viola
Susan Jacobs	....	music supervisor
Wolfram Koessel	....	musician: cello
Joe Mendoza	....	score mixer
Joe Mendoza	....	score recordist
Robert Miller	....	musician: piano
Vera Pandolfo	....	score production executive
Seth Rothschild	....	assistant music supervisor
David Weiss	....	musician: wood flutes
Valerie Wilson	....	musician: singer, soprano

Other crew
Mohammad Al-Ami	....	arabic translation services
Mahmoud Baghdady	....	arabic translation services
Claudia Becker	....	key advisor
Joe Beirne	....	technical supervisor
Rob Berkey	....	macintosh services: Small Dog Electronics
Amanda Brown	....	production assistant
Nora Colie	....	archival researcher
Cletus Dalglish-Schommer	....	creative advisor
Troy Kingsbury	....	macintosh services: Small Dog Electronics
Hermes Laoudas	....	production accountant: Shine & Cimpany LLP
Pearl Lieberman	....	research advisor
Adnan Malik	....	production assistant
Alessandra Meyer	....	archival researcher
Ibrahim Naboulsi	....	arabic translation services
Peter Schmidt-Nowara	....	creative advisor
Melinda Shopsin	....	researcher
Lora Stanbridge	....	production assistant: Los Angeles
Mark Steele	....	production angel
Robert Stein	....	additional legal services: Pryor Cashman Sherman & Flynn LLP (as Bob Stein)
Robert Stein	....	legal counsel
Tim Taylor	....	additional legal services: Withers
Tim Wells	....	production accountant: European Taxation Services Ltd.
May Ying Welsh	....	field correspondent

Thanks
Edward Eglin	....	special thanks (as Ed Eglin)
Jeremy Rabb	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Arte
• BBC Storyville
• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
• Charlotte Street Films
• TV2 Danmark (in co-production with)

Distributors

• Axiom Films (2006) (UK) (all media)
• LK-TEL (2006) (Argentina) (DVD)
• LK-TEL (2006) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Mongrel Media (2005) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Sony Pictures Classics (2006) (USA) (theatrical)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2007) (Brazil) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Digifreak (graphics) (visual effects) (as Digifreak UK)

Other Companies

• ABC News Video Source  archival footage courtesy of (as ABCNews VideoSource)
• BBC Motion Gallery  archival footage courtesy of
• Bono Film & Video  offline services
• C-SPAN Archives  archive films
• Cable News Network (CNN)  archive films (as CNN)
• Cinetic Media  sales
• Corbis  archive films (as Corbis)
• European Taxation Services  production accountants
• Footage Farm  archive films
• Getty Images  archive films
• Goldcrest Post Production London  audio mixing
• Goldcrest Post Production London  on-line editing
• ISIS Films  offline services
• ITN Archive/Reuters  archive films
• Jeremy Walker + Associates  publicity
• Magno Sound and Video  offline services
• NBC News Archives  archive films
• Post Josh  offline services
• Postworks New York  digital intermediate
• Postworks New York  post-production services
• Pryor Cashman Sherman & Flynn  additional legal services
• Shine & Company  production accountants
• Small Dog Electronics  Macintosh services
• The Law Firm of Rosalind Lichter  legal counsel
• Transcript Associates  transcription services
• Withers  additional legal services
• Worldwide Photos  archival footage courtesy of (as AP/Wide World Photos)

Also Known As:

Nerf de la guerre, Le (France) (TV title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for disturbing war images and brief language.

Runtime:

Argentina:99 min | Norway:55 min | USA:98 min

Country:

USA | France | UK | Canada | Denmark

Language:

English | Arabic

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | USA:PG-13 | Australia:M

Company:

Arte

Quotes:

Charles Lewis: We
[Americans]
Charles Lewis: have this idea that we have lots of information available. There's so much that's not available and so much of the truth, quote, unquote, is obscured by political actors who don't want the world to see what they're doing.

Movie Connections:

References Prelude to War (1943)

Soundtrack:

I Fought In A War

Very interesting and revealing, but not complete

As a European I've wondered about America's preoccupation with war and military. Most Europeans oppose military solutions, even when there's a good case for it, probably because of our history of many, many bloody wars.

This movie explains the historic, financial and political reasons for America's enormous military spending (but I'm still left wondering why the people of USA want it).

Eisenhower's farewell speech was very insightful. I had no idea he had seen the dangers already 40 years ago. Using this speech as the base, the filmmaker looks at how the military-industrial establishment has grown to enormous proportions. The military is a part of American society in a way completely different from most European countries.

I would like to see a sequel to this movie, dealing more with American society, perhaps contrasting it with some other big countries (England, France, Germany).