Film: War Made Easy
War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.
War Made Easy gives special attention to parallels between the Vietnam war and the war in Iraq. Guided by media critic Norman Solomon's meticulous research and tough-minded analysis, the film presents disturbing examples of propaganda and media complicity from the present alongside rare footage of political leaders and leading journalists from the past, including Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, dissident Senator Wayne Morse, and news correspondents Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer.
Norman Solomon and producer Loretta Alper will be in attendance to discuss the film after its local premiere at the Academy. The film will be introduced by MEF Executive Director and UMass Amherst Communications Professor Sut Jhally.
The screening is presented by the Media Education Foundation and co-sponsored by Free Press, Men's Resource Center for Change, National Priorities Project, Northampton Committee to Stop the War in Iraq, Progressive Democrats of America, Reel World Film Collaborative, UMass Amherst Communications Department, and Western Mass American Friends Service Committee.