At 6:30 p.m. on Thurs. evening, Oct. 4, 2007, United for Peace of Pierce County (WA) will show " War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death." -- Called "damning" by Variety, "searing" by the San Francisco Chronicle, "chilling and persuasive" by the Nation, "superb" by Howard Zinn, and "compelling" by the Montreal Gazette, "War Made Easy" is a 72-minute documentary film directed by Loretta Alper & Jeremy Earp with high production values and a first-rate account of a "50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq."[1] -- The film employs remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from Lyndon Baines Johnson to George W. Bush, showing in detail the uncritical dissemination of war propaganda by the American news media. -- Special attention is given to parallels between Vietnam and Iraq. -- Norman Solomon, who has devoted much of his life to studying the subject, contributed his research to the film and appears in it. -- "War Made Easy" was an official selection at the 2007 Montreal International Film Festival and the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival. -- See here for reviews of the film. -- There is no charge for viewing this extraordinary documentary. -- The public is invited....
1. WHAT: Showing of "War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death"
WHO: Film narrated by Sean Penn and featuring Norman Solomon, Loretta Alper, and Jeremy Earp
WHEN: Thursday, October 4, 2007, at 6:30 p.m. (UFPPC meeting follows discussion of film)
WHERE: First Congregational Church, 209 South "J" St., Tacoma, WA [From the film's web site] SYNOPSIS http://www.warmadeeasythemovie.org/synopsis.html War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations. War Made Easy gives special attention to parallels between the Vietnam war and the war in Iraq. Guided by media critic Norman Solomon’s meticulous research and tough-minded analysis, the film presents disturbing examples of propaganda and media complicity from the present alongside rare footage of political leaders and leading journalists from the past, including Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, dissident Senator Wayne Morse, and news correspondents Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer. Norman Solomon’s work has been praised by the Los Angeles Times as “brutally persuasive” and essential “for those who would like greater context with their bitter morning coffee.” This film now offers a chance to see that context on the screen. This is a trenchant, compelling broad overview analysis of the repeated cycles of propaganda used by the U.S. government to drive the nation into war through lies and then keep us in conflicts by, in essence, challenging the "manhood" of an ill-conceived war's opponents. By showing footage of side-by-side presidential justifications for various American wars since WWII -- especially Vietnam and Iraq -- the patterns of deception followed by intimidation become clear. It also becomes evident that the architects of war in recent years have intentionally deceived the American public in order to launch conflicts. Then they claim that to pull out would undercut our GIs. In short, it becomes heretical not "to support our troops" who the people commanding them aren't supporting by putting them in unnecessary -- and in the case of Iraq unwinnable -- wars. A compelling documentary that connects some very important dots about techniques used by the executive branch to keep America at war.
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