Tread lightly on the things of earth

I went to see the movie documentary Why We Fight last night. Here’s my first impression.

While Fahrenheit 9/11 employs Michael Moore’s assertive, in-your-face, no-apologies antipropaganda style — which has its place, brimming with passion, which I appreciate — Why We Fight strikes me as sound historical documentary: powerful nonpropaganda, a defuser of propaganda. Yes, it has a point of view (though not immediately obvious); yes, it’s polemical in effect even as it’s graceful in delivery; yes, its historical accuracy leaves BushCo eviscerated as current kingpins of Eisenhower’s foreseen “military-industrial complex.” But its thinking about what that term means precedes BushCo and will outlast BushCo.

Structural evil is structural evil, and while the filmmaker never uses that term, that’s what I see the movie exposing, with honesty and thoughtfulness.

And, unlike U.S. TV under BushCo influence/control, it shows bodies. Not to excess, but unflinchingly. Because war is about lots and lots of dead and mangled bodies. To hide them is to lie about what war is.

Impressive work, masterfully edited. My hunch is this could become a significant historical record for this era.