Critic Reviews

It's impossible to imagine anyone, right-leaning or left, coming away from this hugely important documentary unshaken by its representation of the United States and its military establishment.

It's a topical, iconoclastic documentary with the warmth and pace of a first-rate personal essay.

Jarecki is no glib ideologue thumbing his nose at power.

Picture sets the gold standard for political documentaries.

Why We Fight deserves high praise for making it that much tougher to wear blinders.

An agit-doc of unusual depth. It has a point -- that the primary business of America over the past half-century has been waging war -- and it supports that point with nuance, research, and a willingness to hear the other side of the argument.

There's plenty of ammunition here for liberal conspiracy theorists, which surely will limit the audience to those already in Jarecki's political camp. Which is too bad, for it is a sobering history lesson as well as a political polemic on foreign policy and the growth of war into America's biggest business.

A film that stands out for its passion, ambition and clarion-call sincerity, even amid the contemporary onslaught of political documentaries.

Memo to left-wing anti-Bushies: Stories like this work. Don't lecture. Tell stories! Much better!

Canny and somewhat overwhelming documentary.