War Made Easy (DVD)

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"War Made Easy" focuses heavily on the Iraq war mostly because it´s easier to dig up recent footage, but the film also provides a broader historical perspective. The media has always glorified American military might, from its basic nobility of purpose to its awesome killing efficiency. We only target "bad guys" and any civilian casualties are simply an unfortunate accident because, after all, we´re the "good guys" and we would never intentionally harm the innocent.

Even if you´re inclined to dismiss the film´s politics as "America-bashing" it´s difficult to reject the movie´s main thesis about the media´s complicity in America´s multiple marches to war. "War Made Easy" is not easily forgotten.

Video

The documentary is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The image quality ranges from mediocre to poor with the new interviews (mostly of Norman Solomon) looking best, and much of the media footage, even the recent stuff, looking pretty shaky. The transfer is merely adequate, but it´s not like there´s any way this source image is ever going to look particularly good.

Audio

The DVD is presented in Dolby Digital Mono. No subtitles are provided.

Extras

None.

Film Value

After watching "War Made Easy," you may be tempted to kill your television, but the sad fact is that there is really no alternate media, not print journalism and not the internet, that provides a clearly superior option. For all the valid criticism the film offers, the only alternate solution appears to be to have faith in the people but have you seen the people lately? Am I too pessimistic? I don´t believe the democratization of the media does much to improve the signal/noise ratio, but I´d love to be proven wrong.