by Robert Alstead

In Eugene Jarecki's compelling Why We Fight (opening February 17), we're in similar territory to Fahrenheit 9/11, The World According to Bush (Le Monde Selon Bush) and other documentaries questioning the "war on terror." Why We Fight, however, places the US hostilities toward Iraq within the historical context of international aggression, by what Gore Vidal dubs the "United States of Amnesia."
It's not just that Bush and his cronies had an agenda for invading Iraq prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That's now widely known. Rather, the doc argues, the US is a nation pre-programmed to wage war. The economy and corporate USA need war to make money. Congress needs the defence contracts for the jobs back home. Politicians tow a military line to look strong for elections. The military needs to justify its place as the most powerful force in the world.
The film uses as a starting point president Eisenhower's famous "military-industrial complex" speech to the nation in 1961, wherein he stated, "Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defence with our peaceful methods and goals."
However, the country is now invested to the hilt in its military and the citizenry is dozing. It just takes a president willing to pull the trigger, which is every president since the Second World War, and boom.
Director Eugene Jarecki, who previously made the incisive The Trials of Henry Kissinger, covers a lot of ground in the short space of the film. Visits to arms shows and military bases and archival newsreels spanning more than half a century illustrate how entrenched the US is in militarism. Stealth fighter pilots, who dropped the first bombs in Gulf War II, talk like boys with toys about the excitement of being able to try out an enhanced, guided bomb in a real-life situation. Experts, retired US military officers and politicians shred homespun myths about fighting to "spread democracy and freedom."
Although Jarecki clearly takes a side, he doesn't hit you over the head with a sledgehammer. The spectrum of voices is a credit to his journalistic rigour. One moment, it's Rumsfeld in familiar, unctuous guise courting the White House press. The next, interviews with Iraqi people, including some particularly gruesome pictures of air strike victims, remind us that the US is far from peace and how far the country has moved from 9/11, where, as one commentator says, "We had the world behind us." At times, the documentary skates too quickly across a point. For instance, in defence of the criticism that the White House has been hijacked by a cabal of extremists, presidential advisor Richard Perle says, "We are not the same people that we were before." Is this an admission of mistakes and that experience has changed them? Who are they now, then? I wanted to hear more about why think tanks are so bad. The doc moves along too fast to make it clear.
If, at times, the doc feels scattered, it is probably because it is difficult to attack a system rather than a person. It's not surprising that individual stories stand out. As well as the drama of political intrigue and Bushite corruption, the story of a retired NYPD sergeant and Vietnam vet who lost his son in the 9/11 attacks is particularly poignant. He describes with disarming candour how he wanted to see bombs drop and bodies pile up to avenge his son's death. That the Bush regime suggested Iraq was the guilty party was enough for him to get behind the war. Later in the film, he describes his anger at having been sold a lie. "They exploited my patriotism," he says.
The film, which won the best American documentary prize at Sundance last year, also highlights the Bush administration's enthusiasm for pre-emptive strikes. That's particularly topical given reports that the Pentagon has lowered its threshold for making a nuclear attack and the growing tensions with Iran.
In Caché (Hidden), top-flight French actors Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil play a middleclass couple whose lives are upset when they discover that their comings and goings from home are being filmed by a hidden camera. The slow-moving drama, for which Michael Haneke won the best director award at Cannes last year, builds the tension well. However, it's also a tease. Watching it is like trying to fill in a crossword puzzle without all the clues, which is frustrating.
Ushpizin, a lighthearted look at the conflict between traditional and modern values for a Hasidic Jew in Israel, has been getting favourable reviews. Writer and star Shuli Rand plays an ultra-Orthodox Jew, who welcomes in two "holy guests" during the harvest festival of Sukkot, without realizing that they are thugs on the run who will take advantage of his hospitality.

Robert Alstead writes for www.iofilm.ca. He is currently making a cycling documentary entitled You Never Bike Alone (www.youneverbikealone.com)