http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/you-want-courage-are-you_b_103107.htmlLARISA ALEXANDROVNA
You want courage? Are you willing to support it? Posted May 22, 2008 | 01:33 PM (EST)
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---
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.
- snip -
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.
- snip -
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.
- snip -
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.
- snip -
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.
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