War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

Sean Penn narrates this tightly constructed, absorbing survey of the ways in which the media has, since the Cold War era, framed and presented questions of war and dissent. The filmmakers veer away from the No. 1 crutch of contemporary documentarians—numerous talking heads—and instead surrender their narrative to only one expert, syndicated columnist Norman Solomon (whose book War Made Easyformed the basis for the film). Solomon’s points are illustrated by news footage, which ranges from vintage newsreels to clips from today’s 24-hour news channels and late-night talk shows. In the latter respect, the film is reminiscent of the documentaries produced and directed by Robert Greenwald (Outfoxed), especially when the notion of how the news networks report the same news in the exact same fashion is examined at length.

Shelf Talk: Political documentaries aren’t as hot in 2008 as they were in 2004, but there are still a substantial number of viewers who will take a chance on a left-leaning exposé of modern media. Penn is always the focus of media attention for his political activism, and he has been receiving press for his Into the Wild, which was nominated for major awards (Oscars, SAG, DGA).