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EUGENE JARECKI has
a vision of America. He calls it "the global Democratic
tradition." To understand that vision, try to realize he
isn’t reaching out to liberals or conservatives. Put aside
Republican or Democrat labels and listen and look for a moment.
Is it possible that, instead of two sides screaming bitterly
at each other, a new understanding of what America stands for
can be reached?
That is Jarecki’s idealistic hope behind "Why We Fight,"
the Grand Jury Prize-winner at last year’s Sundance Film
Festival. Now playing in select big-city theaters, it is a compelling
and unforgettable 98-minute documentary that searches into current
events in America (and beyond) in trying to answer the film’s
very title.
If that title rings historic bells, be reminded that, during
World War II, the late Frank Capra, then a leading Hollywood
director, produced a series of powerful "Why We Fight"
documentaries designed to explain to American soldiers why they
were fighting the Axis powers. That 1942-45 series blended propaganda,
history and entertainment to make its indoctrinating statements.
Jarecki was fully cognizant of Capra’s unusual films and
wanted them to serve as a connection between the past and the
present as he set out cinematically to answer his own question:
Has America turned into a culture of imperialism since World
War II, and is our burgeoning power–-most currently exemplified
by America going to war against Iraq in 2003–"destroying
our nation from within while trying to protect it from without?
Are the fibers that hold us together being wrenched apart? And
do we as a people–divided on so many other distracting major
issues of the day–even know it?"
Jarecki’s deeply-felt search begins with a statement made
by President Dwight D. Eisenhower–the very five-star general
who came to symbolize America’s growth as a military power
after the winning of World War II. At the war hero’s January
1961 farewell speech to the nation as he left the Oval Office
after eight years, "Ike" startled listeners with a
warning: Beware the "military-industrial complex."
Implication: The victory against Germany, Japan and Italy has
turned America into a military might and, with spending for new
weaponry at an all-time high, it could become a pathway to corruption–a
confluence of power between high-level forces that could rip
away at the delicate fabric of our democracy.
Initially the word "congressional" was to be part of
the speech’s phrase, but the outgoing President had at the
last minute omitted it. Now Jarecki has put that word back in
for purposes of his own investigation, and without hesitation
explores the incriminating links between Congressional politicians,
the industrialists who make our super-weapons for modern war,
and the armed forces awaiting their next orders.
Assuming they all depend on each other to flourish, is "military
industrial congressional" the new brotherhood that leads
to war?
War has a way of touching most of us, but it is easier to understand
Jarecki, 36, if you understand how war has touched him. From
his office in New York, where he lives with "wife and kids,"
he explained: "I grew up in a Holocaust refugee household
in Asbury Park. So I was raised with dramatic views about war.
My father had escaped from the Nazis and had a distrust of centralized
power. From that I took a lesson about totalitarianism, about
the role of the state. From that came a deep distrust of the
mechanism of power and vigilance of keeping those forces in check.
And in Dwight Eisenhower I found a kindred spirit."
Jarecki walks a self-described "bipartisan" pathway
("I do not come with a party agenda") to interview
major figures, interviews he weaves into "Why We Fight"
around historic footage.
Senator John McCain (Rep.-Ariz.): "Where the debate and
controversy begin is, how far does the U.S. go and when does
it go from a force of good to a force of imperialism?"
Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard: "People complain about
American arrogance and power, but the great threat of the future
. . . is American weaknesses and American withdrawal."
Writer Gore Vidal: "We live in the United States of Amnesia.
Everything is a blank. We have no history."
And, as if to emphasize that Americans remain divided and confused
about Iraq, Jarecki interviews numerous people in the street–each
with a conflicting reason for why we went to war. Oil, power,
greed, ideals, control, revenge. Even "I don’t know."
But of all those interviewed, ranging from a Vietnamese woman
who makes thermobaric bunker busting bombs to the pilot of a
Black Sheep stealth fighter craft that dropped one of the first
bombs on Baghdad to a 23-year-old recruit who has just joined
the U.S. Army, the most fascinating viewpoint is that of Wilton
Sekzer, an ex-New York City cop and helicopter machine-gunner
from the Vietnam era.
Sekzer tells how he lost his son in the
9/11 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. He believed it was
right for America to go to war to avenge his son, he had heard
the government claim that Saddam Hussein had been partly responsible
for the attack on the U.S., and he had even arranged to have
his son’s name etched on the shellcasing of a bomb that
was eventually dropped east of Baghdad.
Suddenly, the government had recanted about
Hussein’s involvement. And suddenly, Sekzer got angry. And
began to question everything that had happened, including his
own reactions. What he had once taken for granted, he now no
longer accepted. His faith in America had collapsed as suddenly
as the Twin Towers.
It is one example, Jarecki points out, of how we can change the
way we view ourselves and the world we live in. And if we can
do that, we can perhaps change America’s future.
"It’s a mistake," said Jarecki, "to look
at the Bush Administration as an exception of foreign policy.
Clinton engaged in it, so did Reagan. In fact, our country’s
been engaged in a countless number of wars, overt and covert.
Proxy wars and secret support. These are expressions of a policy
the public knows little or nothing about. But it is accurate
to look at President Bush as a shrill extension of what has been
going on. Bush has revealed to us the significant dangers of
imperialism and the arrogance at its center. We might think it
was a safe place before him but it wasn’t. Republicans don’t
own the copyright on war. A majority of wars have been run by
Democrats."
Unfortunately, he continued, "America over time has become
dominated by the [political] party game, in which each party
spends disproportionate amounts of time raising funds. In some
ways the parties have become eerily similar, with the goal of
each to keep their base intact by playing to cultural differences
rather than similarities. But I have faith in the American people,
who are on the receiving end of the government. I think they
are tiring of the party game.
"However the two parties may have walked into war and made
the decision collectively, the result has been damaging to America
and to the world."
Jarecki first made an impression on the film world with his directing
talents in 2001 with "The Opponent," a low-budget,
well-crafted boxing drama with "Baywatch" beauty Erika
Eleniak turning pro slugger under trainer James Colby. Released
by Lions Gate, the film jabbed at many of the sensitive areas
that Clint Eastwood would similarly shadow box through three
years later in "Million Dollar Baby."
In 2002, Jarecki decided to showcase his documentary style by
directing "The Trials of Henry Kissinger," based on
a book by Christopher Hitchens. Book and film accused Kissinger
of war criminal behavior, and posed doubts about American foreign
policy. It was a foreshadowing of things to come in "Why
We Fight."
Before taking on the Kissinger project, Jarecki recalled what
his father had taught him. "You see," he explained,
"Kissinger also escaped Germany like my father and took
away a similar lesson about the awesomeness and awfulness of
power. And so I wonder: Later, perhaps, did Kissinger gravitate
to that power? But instead of refusing and rejecting it as my
father had, did Kissinger identify with it?"
Jarecki’s brother Andrew is also a film maker, the director
of the documentary "Capturing the Friedmans" (2003),
a study of the life of accused pedophile Arnold Friedman, and
the profound effect on Friedman’s own family.
"Andrew and I are close," admitted Eugene. "I
jokingly think we grew up in such an eclectic household that
it taught us that truth can indeed be more interesting than fiction.
Though our subject matter may differ, we’re deeply committed
to unearthing hidden truth, particularly when that truth challenges
our prejudices." He added: "I am by nature someone
who roots for the underdog, yells at umpires, cares about justice.
I take it personally when I find injustice."
An ironic footnote: "Why We Fight" was financed for
around $1 million by TV networks in Canada (CBC) and England
(BBC), and a French-German station in Strasbourg–all reflecting
countries whose citizens have been at odds since 9/11 with American
foreign policy.
If "Why We Fight," which Sony is releasing Feb. 10
on 200 screens across America, becomes as popular as Michael
Moore’s "Fahrenheit 9/11," would Jarecki look
forward to becoming an icon for the nation’s political forces?
His answer came without hesitation: "The
day I decide to join a party, that’s the day I’d forfeit
the confidence that’s been vested in me. I don’t wear
a red, blue or green hat. I wear an American and global hat.
I’m trying to promote a real dialogue about our role in
the world to which we are so central."
Whatever else might be said about Michael
Moore, "whether you like or don’t like the way he [does
things], he’s made it hip for young people to think and
talk about politics," Jarecki said. "And that has sent
a message to distributors that people young and old now want
to see politics covered in the movies." |
