Int: Eugene Jarecki

“Why do we fight?” is a rhetorical question with an endless amount of answers. But that doesn’t mean that there can’t be opinions formed by facts that may acceptably serve as answers. When we hear the word “War” we can only shake our head and wish there wasn’t such a thing. Eugene Jarecki’s new documentary tries to narrow down the reasons for the modern War. It tries to probe those reasons without taking sides. In the end, “Why We Fight” turns into a university discourse; a video presentation that enlightens the minds of the audience instead of gearing them in a particular direction.

Why We Fight covers the case of Weapons of Mass Destruction, the military industrial complex, the power and money of weapon manufactures and their intertwined relationship with the government, the case of oil, America’s policing of nations and the voice of democracy in the world for peace. There are interviews with an author (Gore Vidal), a Politician (Senator John McCain), a son’s of a President (John S.D. Eisenhower), a Secretary of the Air Force (James G. Roche), a Political Scientist (Chalmers Johnson), a new soldier (William Solomon), an ex –soldier/NYC Cop and father of a 9/11 victim (Wilton Sekzer), with Pilots (Fuji and Tooms), bomb manufacturers, Iraqis and scattered bits of America. We see footage of Frank Capra’s WWII documentary of the same name, of air shows, of weapons trade shows, bomb factories, and the homes and offices of America political and military personnel. In every possible way Why We Fight tries to cover the gamut giving a forum to speak freely about the subject matter. The central part of the documentary that seems to hold the six chapters together is the story of Wilton Sekzer whose son died in 9/11. Wilton fought in Vietnam, he became a NYC Cop and when he lost his son to terrorism he had his son’s name painted on the side of a bomb that was to be dropped in Iraq. His emotional journey, a contradictory journey that he shamelessly tells, is the hope of the film – the hope for the possibility of change inside people.

From the starting point of Eisenhower’s farewell speech in the White house in 1961 where he coined the phrase “military-industrial-complex,” Eugene Jarecki became inspired to “investigate whether Eisenhower’s fears have come to pass.” The film is broken down like chapters in a book, each chapter devoting an allotted amount of time to the subject at hand such as oil or influential geostrategists. We hear facts and opinions and we can tell the difference between them. The voice of Jarecki is transparent throughout and we are left to wonder if Jarecki even has an opinion on the matter or was he just interested in letting others speak their mind. In the wake of numerous political documentaries that do take sides, a documentary like this is a breath of fresh air. A great follow up to Jarecki’s famed Trails of Henry Kissinger.

I sat down at a round table discussion with Eugene Jarecki.

Question: This film came out at Sundance last year, why wait to release it now?

Eugene Jarecki: I think their was some wisdom at Sony Pictures Classics with that decision. I think they saw the film at Sundance as a film that was ahead of the curve in terms of how the public was seeing our contemporary conditions. They were very courageous to think that the film would stand the test of time and I think they wanted to create some distance between this film and the line of films that came out before that focused on the last presidential election. They knew that I had been animate to stay very clear of that election. I think that they choose to wait to let the film find its own moment irrespective of the last election and its implications.

Question: Does this film only deal with the facts?

EJ: I think to say that would be a lie. Any filmmaker who says he is making a movie just by the facts, it is hard to understand how that filmmaker gets up in the morning to do what they do. We all do subjective work as human beings starting with what we eat for breakfast. Certainly my style as a filmmaking is to put my subject through a kind of rigor. There is an old documentary saying to be easy on your adversaries and hard on your friends. Arguments that I have heard from the usual suspects all to often seem more like sound bites than real thoughts. I tend not to let those answers hang in the air in the feature; they tend to have to give more qualified answers. New ideas I try to give a lot of screen time to.

Question: Did this film start with the question or was there something that lead to the question?

EJ: I think to be fair I would say that the film started with the question and the question seemed to be getting a partial answer with Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell address. Dwight Eisenhower clearly has unbelievable resonance for today, and the question is to what extent can we see, in his words, a diagnosis of contemporary conditions that are troubling to us and a prognosis to how we may look ahead to a world that is more sustainable for ourselves?

Question: What lead to Eisenhower’s Farewell speech?

EJ: It was during the making of the Trails of Henry Kissinger, while we were doing the archival television research I stumbled across this. I don’t think that before or since has any president spoken so candidly to the American public on any subject let alone one of such life or death significance and let alone one so dear to him being a general himself. The fact that he had the clarity and courage to do that was the inspiration for me.

Question: How did you find out about Wilton Sekzer’s story?

EJ: In another life I worked in business. I wasn’t making movies for a sort time and I worked at the World Trade Center in the early 90s. I had the good fortune in the end to have moved on before the events on 9/11, but sadly I had lost some friends who still worked there on 9/11. As a result of having worked there I received newsletters that circled around to the families and friends of the victims. In one of those newsletters I read about Wilton’s story and I contacted his Rabbi – mentioned in the story- who then put in touch with Wilton.

Question: What’s next for you?

EJ: This. I devote every waking hour to this and getting it out the right way to public.

Sony Pictures Classics releases Why We Fight? in NY and L.A. today, and will expand into more theatres with the weeks to come.