Screenplay:
Loretta AlperCast:
Sean Penn, Christiane Amanpour, George Bush, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, Walter Cronkite, Lyndon B. Johnson, Henry Kissinger, Robert McNamara (more)Plots(1)
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.
(official distributor synopsis)
Cast
Sean Penn
USA
Best movies:
The Game (1997)
Carlito's Way (1993)
Persepolis (2007)
Christiane Amanpour
UK
Best movies:
Shock and Awe (2017) - a.f.
Zoolander No. 2 (2016)
George Bush
USA
Best movies:
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) - a.f.
Snowden (2016) - a.f.
The Special Relationship (2010) (TV movie) - a.f.
George W. Bush
USA
Best movies:
Curveball (2020) - a.f.
Die Hard 4.0 (2007) - a.f.
The Big Short (2015) - a.f.
Dick Cheney
USA
Best movies:
The Report (2019) - a.f.
The Special Relationship (2010) (TV movie) - a.f.
Shock and Awe (2017) - a.f.
Bill Clinton
USA
Best movies:
Contact (1997) - a.f.
Richard Jewell (2019) - a.f.
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) - a.f.
Walter Cronkite
USA
Best movies:
Apollo 13 (1995)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) - a.f.
The Butler (2013) - a.f.
Lyndon B. Johnson
USA
Best movies:
Forrest Gump (1994)
JFK (1991)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) - a.f.
Henry Kissinger
German Empire
Best movies:
Vice (2018) - a.f.
11'09''01 - September 11 (2002)
First They Killed My Father (2017) - a.f.
Robert McNamara
USA
Richard Nixon
USA
Best movies:
American Gangster (2007) - a.f.
The Doors (1991) - a.f.
All the President's Men (1976) - a.f.
Ronald Reagan
USA
Best movies:
'Weird Al' Yankovic: The Videos (1996) (video compilation)
Storm Warning (1951)
Trumbo (2015) - a.f.
Jim Lehrer (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Zoolander No. 2 (2016)
Sean Hannity (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
The Siege (1998)
Shock and Awe (2017) - a.f.
Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike (2012)
Spiro Agnew (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
All the President's Men (1976) - a.f.
She Hate Me (2004) - a.f.
Shampoo (1975) - a.f.
Colin Powell (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Curveball (2020) - a.f.
Official Secrets (2019) - a.f.
Kingdom (2007) - a.f.
Paul Wolfowitz (a.f.)
USA
Best movies:
Shock and Awe (2017) - a.f.
Wolf Blitzer
Best movies:
Skyfall (2012)
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
Snowden (2016)
Rush Limbaugh (a.f.)
Best movies:
Forget Paris (1995)