War Made Easy

 

Story:

Based on Norman Solomon’s revealing book and narrated by actor Sean Penn, War Made Easy exposes the government's and the media's purported history of deceiving the American people and leading us into war after war. Using archival footage of past presidents, including Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and both Bushes, and media correspondents like Walter Cronkite, the documentary sheds light on propaganda pushing and draws parallels between the Vietnam and Iraq wars (NetFlix).

Review:

This Media Education Foundation production is based on journalist, Norman Solomon’s book War Made Easy: How the Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Post 9/11 the festival circuit has seen a raft of documentaries more or less touching on the same subject albeit taking different forms that relate to the duplicitous nature of the US government and its foreign policy. What makes War Made Easy one of the more superior and effective works on this topic is its rigorous analysis and its collation of media images over the decades that relate to war reporting. Solomon identifies the parallels between Vietnam, Panama and Iraq and the manner in which the US government has worked in rallying public support for military interventions. The juxtaposition of 1935 Nazi propaganda film “The Triumph of the Will” and US Defense Department’s 1942 film Why We Fight sets a sinister tone upon which the film builds its case.  The premise of Solomon’s argument is a simple one, and certainly not new - that the Pentagon invests heavily in managing the public relations of its military interventions and over time this has evolved into a highly sophisticated machinery capable of duping the masses, assisted by a network of complicit media outlets. The challenge then is how do you build an argument that is convincing which does not descend into sensationalism and succumb to hysterical conspiracy theories so prevalent in the genre of anti US government documentaries of late? Solomon and the directors, Alper and Earp present an intricately constructed leitmotif  of images relating to the war reporting activity over the decades of various major media players including FOX, CNN and NBC. In focusing their debate on one narrow aspect of the Pentagon’s modus operandi, they provide a lucid, uncluttered and effective examination that raises valid questions about the levels to which journalistic standards have sunk and the systemic manipulation of the press and the public by the White House for its foreign policy ends; perhaps even at the expense of truth.  Solomon claims that the history of US pre - military interventions over the decades has followed a deliberate and concise path, only with different players and countries entering into the fore. Beginning with the premise that war is necessary and inevitable, the public, strung along by journalists who have been embedded within the war machinery develops an appetite for war and a belief in the prospect that a dominant US military that will prevail over “the axis of evil”, ensuring a swift and fast victory. The process of embedding described by Solomon  include boot camps run by the Pentagon under the pre-text of preparing journalists on the protocols of reporting within a war zone, through which an inevitable camaraderie develops between the journalists and soldiers, making independent reportage a challenging proposition. The process of embedding reflects a new strategic approach adopted by military officials to embrace journalists into their realm, which has seen good results in the press as journalists take to the open doors and offer favorable behind - the - scenes perspectives on the US military that increases nationalistic fervor and patriotism.  The film also takes time to reflect on the complicated historical relationship between the media, the Pentagon and the history of war reportage, in particular during Vietnam and how that might have affected the course of events.  It is conventional wisdom that press coverage of war in Vietnam was what forced its eventual withdrawal.  In early 1968 when Walter Cronkite gave his report that the war could not be won, it was said by Lyndon Johnson that this was the start of the turning of the tide. The press simply became a problem that needed to be “managed”, according to Cheney; like a high end TV production and thus more resources and ideas were employed towards achieving these ends. Like for example, the $200,000 backdrop created in Qatar for war briefings by a Hollywood set designer; the coining of names such as “Operation Desert Storm” and the overriding press talk focusing on the technological sophistication of various war machines, all contributing towards the public’s general fascination and taste for war.  The film suggests many other parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, citing the Gulf of Tonkin and the existence of weapons of mass destruction as pretexts for escalating military intervention respectively in both those cases and the eventual withdrawal of land troops shifting the burden of fighting the war onto the local population when war became unpopular - these cite Solomon are not spontaneous  but calculated responses of a finely tuned and well - oiled machine that has blended in nicely with the media terrain. Even the eventual “quagmire” we find ourselves in when war isn’t going so well as a way of fomenting debate is another example of a manipulated response by a Government that does not trust leaving it to the press to report, on its own account.  The strength of War Made Easy is its focus on a singular issue which it expands with detail and analysis proving that less really is more. Based on a book written by a journalist for other journalists it is a film that should be watched by all of us who have a minor inkling that maybe we just can trust everything we see and hear on the news. 

Reviewed by Ewa Bigio for Documentary Film Online on February 23, 2008

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