Why We Fight

(99 mins) Grand Jury Prize winner at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Why We Fight is an unflinching look at the anatomy of American war-making. Granted unparalleled Pentagon access, the film launches a nonpartisan inquiry into the forces - political, economic, and ideological - that drive America to fight. Inspired by President Dwight Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell address in which he warned Americans about the dangers of the "military-industrial complex," filmmaker Jarecki weaves unforgettable stories of everyday Americans touched by war with commentary by a "who's who" of military and Washington insiders. Featuring John McCain, Gore Vidal, Richard Perle and others, Why We Fight explores a half-century of U.S. foreign policy from World War II to the Iraq War, revealing how, as Eisenhower warned, political and corporate interests have become alarmingly entangled in the business of war. On a deeper level, what emerges is a portrait of a nation in transition - drifting dangerously far from her founding principles toward a more imperial and uncertain future.