Movies: Everything is Illuminated, and Why We Fight

Two fairly contrasting films this weekend, but, oddly enough still fairly connected. Both are from our friends at the Library, (thanks Fort Collins!) which translates roughly as free entertainment.

Everything is Illuminated starts off as a very quirky tale of a strange young man named Jonathan Foyer played by Elijah Wood. Jonathan collects family memories in plastic bags and tacks them on his wall, underneath portraits of said family member he has collected them from. Hair, notes, postcards, false teeth, jewlery, dirt. It's mostly interesting and also quite odd. The one family member he has little to nothing of is his grandfather Safran, until he receives a picture taken in the early 40s in Ukraine, where his grandfather hid from Nazi Germany before heading to the states.

Of course, this sets Jonathan off to Eastern Europe to hopefully find the town and girl in the picture and learn more of his (oh, dead as of 10 years ago or so) grandfathers past. The movie then transitions into a fairly upbeat and odd little comedic piece of culutural mis-translation, where the other main Ukrainians characters enter to take Jonathan around. But, somewhere along the way of their very rigid search, the movie changes again into a quite heartfelt and sincere reminiscence of times past, loss, fascism, and memories. The change of tone creeps in at the perfect pace and the goofiness of the begining does a wonderful job of keeping you invested in the more tear jerking scenes near the end. All in all, it was wonderfully made and certainly worth putting on your Netflix list. (if you're into that sort of thing.)

The second film was last night's fare, the documentary Why We Fight. It starts, ends, and is centered upon the final speech of President Eisenhower in 1961, in which he warns the american populace against the constant armament of a standing military, and the side effects of letting the country embrace the 'military industrial complex.' The movie takes 100 minutes to go from the Iraq war all the way back to WW2, examining the way that American Foreign Policy has changed, how we spend money on Defense, and a lot of time on who we give that Defense money to. It gets commentary from a decent spread of individuals, officials, historians, politicians and even a young kid who had recently decided to enlist in the Army.

Obviously, the answer to the question of why we fight (which is asked to a smattering of people that seem to be at a 4th of July picnic and parade, and turns up many different answers) provided by the film is not a very charming one. It is an honest look at what drives this country and where our money goes and it is not pretty. I'm sure that most folks who would like to ignore this as they ignored Fareinheit 9/11 could do their best, but, truth be told it seemed to me to be much more objective, and completely without a narrator. The commentary found in the film is composed completely of interviews and statements from the folks chosen, and is not being read from a script. But, the picture has no problem lacing it all together and getting our international message across: We're America, We're in charge, and there's nothing you can do about it.

And this is nothing new, and the lineage that we have of this kind of buildup is shown and described well, and almost leaves you feeling hopeless, sad, and ripped off when the credits finally roll. I suppose the best thing is simply to spread the word about films and other creations that give such an honest look at what we are doing in the world, and look to elect officials who we think will begin to turn the tide against our current direction. Because it isn't pretty now, and it isn't looking to get any prettier anytime soon.