Product Description

Narrated by Sean Penn and based on the work of media critic and best-selling author Norman Solomon, who traveled with Penn to Baghdad just before the war to call attention to the dangers of a U.S. invasion, WAR MADE EASY reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose 50 years of government spin and media collusion that has dragged our country into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. With remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, the documentary exposes how presidential administrations of both parties have relied on a combination of deception and media complicity to sell one war after another to the American people.

Giving special attention to parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, WAR MADE EASY sets government spin and media collusion from the present alongside virtually identical patterns from the past, guided by Solomon s meticulous research and tough-minded analysis. Rare footage of political leaders and journalists from the past includes Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and news correspondents Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer. According to Solomon, whose work has been praised by The Los Angeles Times as brutally persuasive, the positive attention the film has received may indicate a new willingness to counter years of pro-war media spin and government deception. These deep patterns of ongoing perception management must be demystified and decoded if we're going to move beyond the horrors of perpetual war, he said. The way War Made Easy is being embraced could be an important step in that direction.

An Official Selection of 2007 s International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam and the 2007 Montreal and Vancouver International Film Festivals, WAR MADE EASY, directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp, is an invaluable introduction to war propaganda and public relations that transcends partisan politics, and raises serious questions about the role of journalism and political communication in our society.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16511 in DVD
• Brand: Ryko Distribution
• Released on: 2008-03-25
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 72 minutes

Review
Like many other documentaries about the war in Iraq and the Bush administration's foreign policy, "War Made Easy" states its case with persuasive details. There's just so much evidence to support the assertion that several wars have been sold to us like a consumer product we need to survive, and that the American public and more important, the shockingly compliant free press has bought the sales pitch hook, line and sinker.

Produced by the Media Education Foundation; narrated by Sean Penn (which automatically invites derision from the political right); and assembled from a telling variety of news clips, sound bites and archival war footage, "War Made Easy" is based on the 2005 book by political and media critic Norman Solomon, and deliberately limits its focus to Solomon as its only interview subject.

Armed with decades of documentary evidence, Solomon asserts that, especially since World War II, U.S. presidents have repeatedly sold avoidable wars based on fallacious arguments and deceptive manipulation of public support.

For much of the citizenry, Solomon, Penn and the filmmakers are preaching to the choir. But even the most ardent supporters of President Bush's policies would find it difficult to refute Solomon's thesis, which touches on the historical nature of propaganda, bombing raids approved under the pretense of political "altruism" and the manipulation of news media through omitted facts and outright lies designed to encourage pro-war sentiment while anti-war voices (the film mentions CNN's Peter Arnett and MSNBC's Phil Donahue) are summarily silenced.

It doesn't end there, and Bush is presented as merely the latest practitioner of pro-war manipulation. From the squelching of "Vietnam Syndrome" (the notion that Vietnam left a cynical American public resistant to future declarations of war) to the glaring repetition of slogans designed to lull the public into pro-war submission, "War Made Easy" combines historical perspective with contemporary relevance, focusing on recent events as further evidence that deceptive strategies to justify war are nothing new, but rather an ongoing pattern of calculated misdirection that has proved tragically effective. --Jeff Shannon, The Seattle Times

About the Actor
Sean Penn is a powerhouse actor, director and activist whose talent and intensity have made for political controversy and both critical and box-office success. Having first reached film audiences in Taps (1981), Penn has appeared in more than 40 films and has been nominated for four Academy Awards. In 2003, he won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Clint Eastwood s Mystic River. He has also directed four feature films, including the acclaimed Into the Wild.

In recent years he has also established himself as one of America s most visible political activists, emerging as one of the earliest and most outspoken critics of the war in Iraq and other Bush Administration policies.

With Norman Solomon, syndicated columnist, founder of the Institute for Public Accuracy, and author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning us to Death, Penn traveled to Iraq in December 2002, on the eve of war, to call attention to the potential human costs of an American invasion. He returned to Iraq during the war, bringing focus to aspects of the occupation that were not being covered by the mainstream media at the time, and later traveled to Iran to shed light on the potential consequences of an American military intervention there.

In 2005, Penn also helped focus national attention on the inadequate government response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, hiring a boat and security team in the storm s immediate aftermath and personally assisting in the rescue effort.

Norman Solomon is a nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics. He has been writing the weekly Media Beat; column since 1992.

Solomon's latest book, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, was published in 2005. The Los Angeles Times called the book "brutally persuasive" and "a must-read for those who would like greater context with their bitter morning coffee, or to arm themselves for the debates about Iraq that are still to come." The newspaper's reviewer added: "Solomon is a formidable thinker and activist." The Humanist magazine described the book as "a definitive historical text" and "an indispensable record of the real relationships among government authorities and media outlets."

Solomon is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a national consortium of policy researchers and analysts.

Solomon has appeared as a guest on many media outlets including the PBS NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, C-SPAN, public radio s Marketplace, and NPR s All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Talk of the Nation.

In 2003, Norman Solomon appeared on CNN more than a dozen times as an in-studio guest. In addition, he was a guest on MSNBC and Fox News Channel, and appeared on live broadcasts of C-SPAN s Washington Journal. He voiced commentary that aired on the nationwide public radio program Marketplace. In addition, Solomon appeared on such international outlets as the BBC Radio World Service, CBC Radio, CBC Television, Voice of America, Al-Jazeera Television, Australia's ABC television and radio, and SBS radio networks. He also appeared on radio outlets in Ireland and South Africa.

Solomon s op-ed articles have appeared in a range of newspapers including the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, New York Times, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer and Baltimore Sun. His articles have also appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Canada s Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and the Jordan Times.

He is also senior advisor to the National Radio Project, which produces the weekly public-affairs program Making Contact, heard on 160 noncommercial radio stations in North America.

Customer Reviews

watch this movie.
Excellent documentary that talks about the way the media and the American government heave misled the American people into the Vietnam and Iraq wars and then actively rewrite history to cover the facts.

How many times have we heard, "no one could have known Iraq didn't have WMDs" or "if i knew then what i know now." The fact is, we did know the chances were extremely low, and the protesters before the war began numbered in the millions. The media, rather than investigating and out of fear of being "unpatriotic" fell in lockstep with the administration.
Times right now are scary, and this movie shows how the freedoms we take for granted are being grievously abused. Watch this movie to be reminded of how the media and the government should work in relation to one another.

Great examination of factors (mis)leading us into war
Norman Solomon is a thoughtful scholar and his powerful analysis makes clear the many factors which let government officials (mis)lead us into war. A must see! Also read the book: War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

Definitely a "Must See"....
I agree with the others who have seen the film, this is most definitely a must see documentary.
Tired of all the lies being told by bush (he doesn't even deserve a "capital b") concerning the war in Iraq? Then watch this film and learn how the government has lied before (Vietnam) in order to get us into a war and how they continue to do so to this day.
As for the "conservative reviewer" who gave this film only one star, have you even seen the film? And do you know how to spell and structure sentences correctly? Funny how alot of those right wingers have trouble spelling (probably due to too much inbreeding).
Anyway, Joe Bob says (concerning this film)"check it out!"