War Incorporated

Larisa Alexandrova, HuffPost

When I tell any truth it is not for the sake of
convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those who
do. ~ William Blake

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I am not a film-critic as most of you know. So the below is not meant to be
a plot summary and some catchy thumbs-up-down analysis of the brilliant new
John Cusack film -- a political black comedy on the Iraq war called
appropriately War Inc. If you want background and snippets, then see here.
My interest in writing about the film right now, before its opening on May
23rd, is in the hope of saving it from what appears to be a distinct stench of
blacklisting. No, I do not believe there is an organized, conspiratorial effort
to shut-down a wide release of War Inc. Just to be clear, that is not
what I am saying. In reality, we no longer need any organized effort because
the mechanism of censorship is now so fully integrated into the body-politic of
this nation anyway.
But I do think that there is an unspoken mega-understanding within
mega-corporations and their wholly owned mega-writers that the film should be
quietly escorted from the reach of the general public and instead, relegated to
the outskirts of art-houses and small venues in a land far, far away.
Consider this idiotic review from the Toronto Star:

"It all adds up to a fast pace, lots of shooting, and a
movie that, in its heart, is as corrupt as the politics it attempts to
satirize."
That is a rather strong statement, is it not? Yet the writer of this
nonsensical assertion never explains how War Inc. is "as corrupt
as the politics it attempts to satirize." The words sound impressive,
presented all glossy-like on the pages of a news publication. But read this
idiocy again. It is total non-sense. This is the kind of contorted acrobatics
the corporate press is entangling itself in so that they can justify why they
are trashing this film. Seriously, unless War Inc. is responsible for
the deaths of nearly a million Iraqis or even one Iraqi frankly, this assertion
by the Star is closer someone's idea of acid-trip wit than it is a
serious review of the film.
Are you surprised?
In an interview I recently did with John Cusack about his film he told me
what a hard
time he had getting a studio interested in the project and getting distributors
to look at the finished product. I wondered how this could be possible
given the all-star line-up which includes Marisa Tomei, Ben Kingsley, Dan
Aykroyd, Hillary Duff, and Joan Cusack.
And even now, after many well respected journalists and thinkers have fully
backed the film, it still hangs in the balance of opening weekend results, or
else it will be moved straight from its limited release to DVD - in other
words, to a land far, far away.
But Look Here
Most mainstream critics have described War Inc. as either a failed
attempt to recreate the political and social potency of Dr.
Strangelove or as a tepid attempt at satirizing the Iraq war using over-the
top and idiotic humor as the tool. Yet still others have described the film as
failing simply because of timing. You see, we are still in the Iraq war; it is
still too fresh, so the truth still hurts too much. In short, they don't
"get" it.
Indeed the people who "get" War Inc., in their critiques
and reviews are a smaller contingent than those who are busy panning it. But
that smaller contingent is not a collective of "movie-critics"
working for corporate owned publications. Rather, the people who
"get" War Inc., are people I read, admire, and whose
opinions I trust. They are people you read, admire and whose opinions you
trust.
They are serious writers and thinkers who have spent a great deal of time in
Iraq; who have broken new ground in reporting on the extent of corporate abuses
and war profiteering; who many consider to be heroes.
The voices backing War Inc., include Gore Vidal, one of the finest
thinkers of our time, Naomi Klein, one of the most respected journalists of our
time, Jeremy Scahill, one of the few journalists to take on corporate
profiteering in Iraq and at home, Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent
for CBS and who has been stationed in Iraq all this long while, nearly losing
her life while trying to inform us, the public (ensconced safely at home). To
these voices I add my own, although much smaller voice, of support.
Surely these people should have more weight with distributors, movie
theaters, and all the folks who come together and decide if something is
thumbing up or down? Apparently not for those who decide if and when a movie
becomes a flop.
In reading some of the corporate excuses/reviews used by the corporate
writers to explain why they do not like the film, I become increasingly more
and more incensed and puzzled. I would respect the corporate-pens more if they
actually admitted having not seen the film or having lifted their opinion from
another opinion-maker or to simply having been paid to trash the film. But to
use arguments that are insufficient (the war is too fresh) and are ultimately
ridiculous (it is not Dr. Strangelove) is disingenuous on their part and
something I can easily remedy by pointing out why-- at least on the two most
often used reasons for why the film "does not work."
Dr. Strangelove it is not...

This absurdist comedy clearly has aspirations to be this
generation's "Dr. Strangelove," with its satirical attack on the
privatization of the Iraq
War. But despite its sterling cast and a screenplay written by such experienced
farceurs as Cusack ("Grosse Pointe Blank"), Mark Leyner (the novel
"Et Tu, Babe") and Jeremy Pikser ("Bulworth"), the film is
far more groan- than laugh-inducing. Scheduled to hit theaters May 23, the
First Look release is unlikely to counter the commercial malaise for war-themed
films. ~The
Hollywood Reporter
Although there are elements of Strangelove in War Inc.,
most notably in the near final scenes, it is not an attempt to translate an
ineffable concept to a propagandized populace using humor as a vehicle by which
to educate them.
John Cusack, Mark Leyner and Jeremy Pikser deliver something of a different
animal in their screenplay.
Strangelove's brilliance is that it took an idea most of the public
did not understand - the philosophy of nuclear deterrence through assured total
mutual destruction - and stripped it of the political jargon, using comedy to
make palatable the idiocy and duplicity of the Cold War arms race.
War Inc. does not attempt to emulate this formula at all nor does
it claim to. Consider that we - the public - do not need to have the political
opera translated for us. We don't need to be educated on a concept too hard to
otherwise grasp. The majority of the public already knows that the reasons for
the Iraq
war were a lie, a willful, bold-faced lie by the leadership of this country.
The majority of the public already knows that the only people to benefit
from the war are the private sector cronies of the Bush administration, some of
whom are still stock holders in some of these private sector companies.
Most importantly, the majority of the public knows all of this despite
billions of dollars spent by the Bush administration on illegal domestic and
foreign propaganda to convince us otherwise.
Yet the pantomime continues, the charade goes on, the farce is on the march.
So our reality becomes a sort of waking nightmare, a split reality where
nothing is what it seems to be and everyone is lying about something.
Everything is for sale, and we better continue buying as if in a 'wink-wink'
way we are being threatened should we dare not play along.
So we play, but we scream anyway. We cry anyway. We rage anyway. But we
play.
War Inc. magnifies that which we already know and that which we are
being forced to play along with. It is not subtle, it is not meant to be. It is
not meant for the 10% of the populace who await the End Times to come and save
them from themselves. They won't get it, because to get it, you have to first
know that our reality is all a lie for profit, only then can you grasp the
massive cerebral hemorrhage that War Inc., delivers.
The Horror
Think for a moment of the real-life desert
of the real that we live in. The Bush administration and their paid
proxies, for example, attack those who disagree with them on the Iraq war as not
supporting our soldiers.
The term "irony" is not remotely strong enough to convey the
horror of this rhetoric given that it is pouring out of the mouths of the very
people who have lied to and exploited the troops, our troops.
The same people -- the Bush administration and their proxies -- sent
thousands of US soldiers to their death through willful lies and abandoned the
broken rest to a hell-hole wasteland of medical neglect -- have the arrogance
to actually lecture us on supporting the troops.
Worse still, the corporate press echoes these same talking points. Yet we
see right through all of this, don't we? It goes in circles and never stops. Is
this not excruciatingly absurd? How does one find the logic of this chaos and
maintain some semblance of sanity?
There is a scene in War Inc., which quite literally takes this
perverted propaganda and puts it on stage in the form of a chorus-line of women
whose legs have been amputated. Watching them kick up their metal prosthetic
legs all the while smiling in thanks to the fictional defense contractor who
has made their dance possible is bone-chilling. Yes, I laughed at the absurdity,
but a sort of nervous laughter because crying long ceased to relieve the
tension.
This scene captures perfectly that which we know about the twisted way in
which the crimes of the Bush administration have actually hurt our troops and
turns inside-out the talking points of the corporate press, directly aiming the
sewage back against its origin.
No, War Inc. is definitely not a Dr. Strangelove remake. Rather, it
is a mix of two other Kubrick classics, Full Metal Jacket and A
Clockwork Orange, with a dash of the Wizard of Oz and a
sprinkling of Strangelove to make the taste of the whole concoction
palatable.
Too Fresh to be Funny...
Many of the corporate critics say the film pours salt on wounds still to
raw, wounds still being inflicted. Well if John McCain gets his wish and we
stay in Iraq
for 100 years, then perhaps our grandchildren's grandchildren will be far
removed enough from history to not be offended by it.
Consider this stunningly telling review:

A blackly comic take on the first totally outsourced
war? We're too close to being in one right now, which makes this John Cusack
vehicle too close for comfort. It's also so close to being funny you can just
about taste it -- just about. ~ John Anderson, Variety
We are "too close to being in one right now?" Um, we are not too
close, rather we are exactly there. The discomfort you are feeling Mr. Anderson
is a necessary pinch to make sure you are still human. Are you? Are we?
Beyond the too-close-for-comfort meme, the real question here is at what
point does the public's discomfort become necessary so that the truth of the Iraq war can
finally come to light? Perhaps the time for less discomfort is yet to come,
although I doubt that such a thing as war crimes could ever be something I am
ever comfortable with or would ever want to be. Would you?
Yes, my discomfort in watching the film was visceral and I laughed too, but
it was necessary for my sanity to have someone else tell me that they see what
I see. It was for the benefit of those "who know" the truth that this
movie was made. Not for those who rage against truth at all costs, perhaps in
hopes of salvaging the little part of them that they can still call human.
Do what I do, not what they say
Ultimately, the success of this film will not rest with intellectually lazy
film-critics or with the musings of privately owned members of the fourth
estate. The success of this film will rest with you, the audience and with a
grassroots movement that has thus far been the only force to keep this nation
from diving fully into the arms of fascism. Make me proud and buy a ticket
tomorrow. Show up in droves and see for yourselves if you think this film as
brilliant and brave as I do.
I am counting on you the way you count on me, the way all of us who want
courage from others must count on ourselves to support that courage when called
upon to do so.
To read the reviews and learn more about War Inc, go to www.myspace.com/johncusack