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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
Directed by: Robert Greenwald. Produced by: Greenwald, Sarah Feeley, Jim Gilliam & Devin Smith. Director of Photography: Nick Higgins. Edited by: Carla Gutierrez & Sally Rubin. Music by: Tree Adams. Released by: Brave New Films/The Disinformation Company. Country of Origin: USA. 90 min. Not Rated. DVD Features: Director’s commentary. “The Making of Iraq for Sale,” “Important Votes,” “The Invisible Workforce,” & “Brave New Foundation: Open-Door Training Program” featurettes. Abridged version. English & Spanish audio. Spanish subtitles. Trailers.
Impeccably sourced, profiles illustrate the impact of corporate greed and deception on both Iraqi detainees and American employees of
such companies as Halliburton, Blackwater Security Consulting, and CACI International. Tens of thousands of citizens have signed up to
support their families while serving their country, but the promise of a high salary provides a new and macabre meaning to the term
“pyramid scheme.” One cannot but conclude that that is precisely what the U.S.’s foray into the Iraqi desert has become,
strikingly reinforced by the film’s flowcharts showing the connections between U.S. government officials and the billion-dollar
defense industry, with – most tellingly – a significant and amazing number of former politicos now on the boards of these entities.
Masterfully interspersed are two of the film’s most devastating consequences – the examination of private contractors’ involvement
in the Abu Ghraib scandal (which includes a shot of a crude and grotesque stick-figure interrogation manual) and the deaths of
four American contractors, burned alive by insurgents in Fallujah.
Whether it be profiling two of the workers, Jerry Zovko and Scotty Helvenston; or revealing the surprising amount of times Congress
has passed up the chance to do halt anti-competitive, no-bid contracts; or highlighting the huge amounts of money given to
outsourcing in Iraq, the film leaves little doubt that the “liberation” has been catastrophic for pretty much everyone besides the
friends of the White House. What is perhaps most appalling about how the war has been conducted, as the doc so aptly delineates, is its ruthless toll on the average worker, a point clearly driven home by one blood-boiling sequence in which Blackwater’s political strategy is exposed in the wake of the deaths of the four contractors.
DVD Extras: The short “making-of” featurette gives Greenwald’s documentary a crucial context, with some of its producers
discussing how it has led many of those interviewed to being witnesses in Congressional hearings. In the “Important Votes” segment,
some Democratic legislators – including Byron Dorgan, Patrick Leahy and Henry Waxman – come off as heroes for their Herculean
(though futile) efforts to regulate the war’s privatization. The efficacy of the current political system is negated by the likes of
Republican Senator John Warner. The “Invisible Workforce” segment raises an issue that is fascinating in light of the immigration
debate here at home. More than in any war in American history, third-country nationals have taken over jobs which used to be
staffed by the military. Working without a contract, their labor is cheap and does not entail they be kept safe, a practice that some of their fellow American employees consider to be morally repugnant and racist.
Greenwald’s commentary supplies an informative glimpse into his filmmaking. He had intended to begin with Harry Truman’s call for an investigation into military wastefulness and fraud during WWII, before arriving at its current structure of laying out facts upfront, and then delving into stories. The abridged version of the doc, designed for activist organizing, is a succinct highlight reel. Reymond Levy
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His latest work places documentarian Robert Greenwald
among such greats as Frederick Wiseman and Haskell Wexler, whose own films emblemized the countercultural sensibilities of the 1960s.
Indeed, this is perhaps the most effective of Greenwald’s seemingly indefinite indictments against politics in the age of Bush
(Uncovered: The War on Iraq). Gone are any cheesy graphics or music; in its place, a better sense of sophisticated analysis;
and despite the easy target of independent contractors getting fat off the war, a higher degree of introspection, aided by a stunning cascade of facts.