Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006)

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is a documentary film which premiered in 2006. Here is some basic information about it:

** Producer and director: Robert Greenwald
** Studio: Brave New Films
** Run time: 75 minutes

Many persons are interviewed in this film. I will not mention all names, because the complete list is too long. Here are some of the names (in alphabetical order):

** Keith Ashdown – Taxpayers for Common Sense
** Mark Benjamin – an investigative reporter
** Pratap Chatterjee - CorpWatch
** Jim Donahue – Halliburton Watch

** Charlie Gray – Center for Corporate Policy

** Chris Farrell – Judicial Watch
** Charles Lewis – Fund for Independence in Journalism
** Messie Ritsch – Center for Responsive Politics

This film focuses on four private companies which have contracts with the US Government (the Pentagon) to deliver certain goods to or provide certain services for the US Army in Iraq:

** Blackwater
** CACI
** KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburton)
** Titan

What do reviewers say about this film? Here are the results of three review aggregators:

*** 68 per cent = Meta
*** 77 per cent = IMDb
*** 85 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
** 100 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

On the US version of Amazon there are at the moment more than one hundred reviews of this product. The average rating is 4.5 stars.

According to a review in the New York Times, this film is “a horrifying catalog of greed, corruption, and incompetence among private contractors in Iraq.”

As you can see, the ratings are quite good. When you look at Rotten Tomatoes, you can see that there is a clear difference between the general audience and the professional critics. The professional critics like this film more than the general audience, although both groups are very positive.

In this case, I have to side with the critics. I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars.

PS. For more information on this topic, see the following items:

** Control Room (2004)

** Why We Fight (2005)

** The Ground Truth (2006)

** No End in Sight (2007)

** The Unknown Known (2013)

** We Are Many (2014)

** Imminent Threat (2015)

** Official Secrets (2019)

*****

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Why We Fight (2005)

Why We Fight is a documentary film which premiered in 2005. The topic is the war in Iraq and the US military-industrial complex. Here is some basic information about this film:

** Writer and director: Eugene Jarecki

** Available via Amazon Prime Video

** Released on DVD in 2006

** Run time: 98 minutes

The title Why We Fight is borrowed from a series of propaganda films that were made during World War Two. The series was directed by the famous director Frank Capra (1897-1991).

The US military-industrial complex is a phrase that was used by President Eisenhower in his farewell address to the American people in January 1961. Eisenhower used this occasion to issue a warning: if we allow this complex to become too powerful, it will damage and threaten our freedom and our civil liberties. The film begins with a clip from Eisenhower’s farewell address.

Several persons are interviewed in the film. The choice of participants is interesting, because they seem to represent a wide spectrum of American politics:

** Two descendants of President Eisenhower: John S. D. Eisenhower (a son of the president) and Susan Eisenhower (a granddaughter of the president)

** Two conservatives: Richard Perle (born 1941) and John McCain (1936-2018)

** A disillusioned expert from the Pentagon: Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski

** An American dissident: Gore Vidal (1925-2012)

** Two political experts: Gwynne Dyer (born 1943) and Chalmers Johnson (1931-2010)

** Wilton Sekzer, a retired New York police officer whose son was killed when the World Trade Center collapsed on 9/11

Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to illustrate historical events and to show us old clips and old interviews with public figures.

What do reviewers say about this film? Here are the results of three review aggregators:

68 per cent = Meta

81 per cent = IMDb

79 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

87 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)

The famous movie critic Roger Ebert (1942-2013) was not impressed by this film. He believes it will only be seen by people who already agree with the general message of the film and claims there is nothing new in the film. He offers two of four stars, i.e. a rating of only 50 per cent.

I often agree with Roger Ebert, who was a wise man, but in this case I have to disagree.

In my opinion, this film is an important document about an important topic. I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars.

PS # 1. Eugene Jarecki is the director of several documentary films and the author of the following book: The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril (2008).

PS # 2. For more information, see the following items:

** Control Room (2004)

** The Ground Truth (2006)

** Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006)

** No End in Sight (2007)

** We Are Many (2014)

** Imminent Threat (2015)

** Official Secrets (2019)

*****

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