Larisa Alexandrovna Interviews John Cusack On His New Movie "War, Inc." (Iraq War Dark Comedy)!

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Thu May-08-08 03:24 PM
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Larisa Alexandrovna Interviews John Cusack On His New Movie "War, Inc." (Iraq War Dark Comedy)!

Edited on Thu May-08-08 03:45 PM by Hissyspit

Mark Crispin Miller via E-mail: Thanks to my friend Jeremy Pikser, who co-wrote the screenplay (and who also wrote
the script for Bulworth), I got to see John Cusack's War, Inc. at a recent screening in
New York.

It's quite a movie, dealing openly--and satirically--with aspects of the Bush regime
that you are likely not to see in any other Hollywood production.

Here's Larisa Alexandrovna's interview with Cusack, and details as to how you too
might see the film.

MCM

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/The_Dada_HitMan_Cometh_0507.html

Cusack slams corporate media, talks up new movie 'War, Inc.' in wide-ranging interview
Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Wednesday May 7, 2008

Want to attend a screening of War, Inc. for free with two Raw Story writers? Want John Cusack to see your talent as a limerick writer? See details at the end of the interview.

Actor, writer, director John Cusack has a lot to say about the Iraq war and the current state of US politics. Although he frequently uses such forums as the Huffington Post to express his criticism of the Bush administration, in his new film, War Inc., he really pulls out all the stops to shine a damningly aggressive light on the privatization of war.

Cusack sat down with Raw Story's Larisa Alexandrovna to discuss the film, his political views and his take on the state of mainstream media, which he feels has failed in its role as the public watchdog.

"I think in a way you can almost respect the criminals more than the enablers in some sick way -- I mean, I think what the Bush administration has done is criminal, should be treated as a crime, but the idea that people who call themselves journalists let these lies go on unchecked and endorsed them time and time again is ," Cusack said. "Don't get me wrong, I think great journalism is heroic, I am in awe of great journalists."

The journalists Cusack goes on to praise are a small contingent -- including the legendary Bill Moyers, Naomi Klein, Sy Hersh and Keith Olbermann. Cusack also credits alternative press outlets like Raw Story and blogs like Crooks and Liars with keeping the public informed.

War, Inc. is not subtle as far as satire goes, but it is precisely the sledgehammer hit -- the "shock" of the totally outlandish and suffocating all-over-the-place bombing of the viewer's senses -- that makes the film a truly onomatopoeic visual to the audacious crimes it is ridiculing on screen.

The plot revolves around a corporate hit-man, Brand Hauser (Cusack), who is hired by a corrupt US defense contractor called Tamerlane to assassinate the oil minister of the fictional Middle Eastern country of Turaqistan, which has been invaded by the United States. Tamerlane's CEO is a former United States Vice President, played brilliantly by Dan Aykroyd and obviously based on the current real life Vice President and former Halliburton CEO, Dick Cheney.

Asked what Cusack would say to Vice President Dick Cheney if he had the opportunity, Cusack wisecracks, "You have the right to remain silent."

Cusack is far more serious on the topic of torture and violations of the Geneva Conventions by Bush administration officials.

"You know, Nuremberg said that an illegal invasion of a sovereign country in a war of aggression is a supreme war crime."

Cusack wonders why no one in the press has made this a bigger issue and why Democrats in Congress have not made it a priority.

A clip from the movie appears below, followed by RAW STORY's exclusive interview.

VIDEO AT LINK

Raw Story�s Larisa Alexandrovna: So what made you want to make a film? I mean what possessed you to wake up one day and say to yourself "I want to make a dark comedy about the Iraq war and corporate greed"?

John Cusack: Well, I think there is like a great tradition of satire or absurdist comedy that mocks and tries to take down power elites and orthodoxies whether it�s the church or the aristocracy or the state. It is not really a new idea � for example the carnival, or the Marx Brothers, Preston Sturges, Terry Southern, Brecht� are all obviously great influences �

RS: Is Terry Gilliam an influence here? Because stylistically War Inc., resembles that sort of gritty visual that combines a WWII-era setting, that is actually taking place in some detached and random future where technology has advanced significantly, but society is still set in the past, like in his classic Brazil�

JC: Oh yes, absolutely and even Kafka. There is so much� I would even say the incendiary political cartoons of George Grosz or the writings of Hunter S. Thompson� there are so many influences and traditions of this type of thought, satire with teeth or comedy as serious business to escape and laugh at things that are not supposed to be funny. It is supposed to make you think but not overtly. You are not sure if you should be laughing or what it means to laugh.

RS: Yes, of course. The rebellion-in-a-safe-setting-type thing. But what prompted you � John Cusack � to say I am going to make a black comedy about the Iraq war?

JC: Yes, a very long winded answer�

RS: No, I really like it because it provides insight and because I particularly like this genre ...

JC: Well I am going to meander because I have been talking non-stop for a week�

RS: That is fine, I tend to meander as a matter of course, so go right ahead.

JC: (laughs) Okay. I think in the kind of postmodern way, the aristocracy today � where it used to be the Bishop, the popes, the royals, etc. � is now the corporate aristocracy�

RS: The gilded age�

JC: Right and so what made me do it was what I thought was behind the Iraqi invasion, a kind of corporatist ideology that has been trying to take over and engulf the great things about America and the American dream� you know?

RS: Yes. The first fully privatized war with non-privatized casualties.

Reality Plus � the Film

JC: I think so. In fact, it is really taking trends to their logical conclusions and there has been a movement in the last 35 years I think, a corporate revolution to replace the state. If you read The Shock Doctrine plus other books about this stuff, and there is a lot out there, you can see this trend. Although Naomi is on the vanguard as a journalist, reporter, and thinker and she puts it together in a ground-breaking way.

RS: Is this based on The Shock Doctrine? I mean you putting the screenplay together around the time she was writing it?

JC: No actually, we were working on the film and her piece "Baghdad Year Zero" came out in Harper�s, and it inspired us to dig deeper. And as we were making the film, we sent her the script � I was lucky enough to become friends with her � and so we sent her the script and we asked her what she thought and she was totally on-board, as a friend. She was not an official collaborator or anything, but she was very supportive.

RS: The book is amazing. I have read it twice already. As you say the ideas are not new, but the distillation of those ideas and those histories into a single, measurable cause-effect narrative is indeed groundbreaking. By the way, I really enjoyed your interview with her as well.

JC: Oh, thanks. Yeah, she has been really supportive of the film. She calls it �Reality Plus��

RS: I was actually thinking of it having the sub-title "Entitlement Capitalism"� I mean, is that right essentially? The idea that is? For example your character�s name, Brand Hauser seems to be a play on words. Because I was thinking that Hauser could be based on the foundling Kasper Hauser and then the Brand together could easily translate into Entitlement Capitalism�is the character based on Kasper Hauser? I am reading way too much into it aren�t I?

JC: I think you are half right. I think Hauser sounds like Howitzer. But yeah, when you think of something funny to say and it is in the back of your mind, like this little secret� and I was aware of Kasper Hauser, so it may have translated� and I was aware of the language of films and having genres and trying to subvert genres through language. Just like the right-wing uses the aesthetics of authoritarianism, it�s kind of American patriotism is the cover for what they do. They use a sort of frontier model where George Bush plays cowboy and so the idea of branding of images is all connected in this way with the character.

RS: Right and there is also the whole double entendre of branding � as in cattle, the ownership society. But your character, does he represent something more than what we see? That is to say, outside of the obvious branding concept and him being a hit-man, does he represent something more internal? For example � does he represent a struggle between the person�s choice to do a thing and their feelings ultimately about that choice? Again, I may be reading far too much into it, so just humor me�

JC: I think there is this element, you know, when you are playing around with archetypes and we do try to keep the emotions of characters vital as they shift from the surreal to seriousness to dark comedy to melodrama�so within that you are working with a lot of archetypes and I think Hauser is kind of like a full-spectrum Samurai, you know?

Samurai are these warriors with a code and they are sort of left really wandering around as guns for hire. So they are mercenaries and they have been corrupted and then they leave a corrupt situation and try to on their own make an allegiance in a corrupt world. Wandering around a fallen world, that type of archetype. We thought of that, and plus the assassin metaphor is a particularly good one of our foreign policy, because Hauser does not necessarily equate who he is with what he does.

RS: And the mask or the will to go on to do what he does is located in this drink you have him constantly imbibing in the film, �Donny Loo's Fever Juice�. Is that the point of the drink, as a transformative device?

JC: We thought it would be really funny that he has this thing that he takes that blocks out but also gives him a kick start. It�s a public show, a test too. Remember G. Gordon Liddy used to put a flame to his arm, to burn his flesh to prove that he still had the discipline kind of thing�

RS: At parties no less�

JC: Really?

RS:: Yeah, he would stand around at parties and put his hand over a candle, holding it there without flinching. Or at least that is what Deep Throat tells us in All the President�s Men . Yes, it is one hell of a party trick for a sociopath.

JC: So this is our G. Gordon Liddy party trick. I mean it was for him, Hauser, that he does it and it is this mixture of jet propulsion and self flagellation�

RS: Ah, so there is an element of guilt, no?

JC: Yeah, I think so. Or there is an element of trying to drown out his past.

RS: Did you actually make some sort of concoction to drink as a prop? What was in there anyway?

JC: I mixed up some tomato juice.

RS: That�s it?

JC: Well tomato juice and tobacco.

RS: And speaking of hit-men, this is your second one, no?

JC: Um� yeah, it is actually.

RS: So how do you actually get ready for roles like this. Do you go out and sniff out hit-men from somewhere, or do you locate some random retired CIA guy to talk to, or do you just wing it?

JC: I know a lot about that sort of thing. You know ultimately I was more worried trying to get the film together.

RS: So are we going to see another hit-man?

JC: I don�t know�

RS: Now how did you and Josh Seftel agree on who would do what? Did you sit down together and decide who would do what and who would be cast in what role?

JC: We worked together real close. It was very collaborative. But you know, we did not have a lot of time or money so we had to come in and shoot fast�

RS: So wait, were you guys having a hard time getting a distributor for the film?

Political Censorship is on the March

JC: Oh yeah, it was really hard to get a break for it�

RS: Why?

JC: Because it�s crazy�

- snip -

JC:: No, no� I am in awe of great journalism. But these people, the corporate press� I mean how many times does Dick Cheney go on Meet the Press and just get softballs from Tim Russert? That is what I mean and yeah, I think the corporate press is absolutely culpable .

RS: Or � let�s play spot the propaganda � how about The New York Times and Judith Miller�s pre-Iraq war articles, five articles.

JC: How about when they did the Iraq round-up with all these people and nobody talked about how invading a sovereign country in a war of aggression is a war crime. You know, Nuremburg said that an illegal invasion of a sovereign country in a war of aggression is a supreme war crime.

RS: Yes, absolutely true. In fact, a former chief prosecutor in the Nuremburg trials, Benjamin Ferencz (he successfully convicted 22 Nazi officers) has recently said that �prima facie case can be made that the United States is guilty of the supreme crime against humanity, that being an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation."

JC: Right. You can go back to the Hague and what happened there�

RS: I wish we could go back to the Hague� But I wanted to say regarding your point about the courage of criminals. You are right, we expect criminals to be criminals, so there is no surprise there � perhaps not so overtly audacious � but we expect a criminal to be just what they are. For me, obviously just my own opinion is that I think the corporate press should be held more responsible because the public has put their trust In them to protect them from the government machinations, distortions, lies, especially in matters of life and death.

JC: That is exactly my point. We are in violent agreement�

RS: I prefer violent agreement over violent disagreement.

JC: That is something my father always says, that �we are in violent agreement.� But I also think the same thing could be said of the Democrats, who I have some sympathy for but not much.

RS:: You mean the current Congressional Democrats?

JC:: Yeah. I mean Pelosi said �impeachment is off the table.� What does that mean? I mean does that mean that someone can commit a crime and it just goes unaccountable until maybe a Democrat can win the White House?

RS: I think it means that Congress has abdicated its duty.

JC: Don�t get me wrong. I don�t mean to make a blanket statement. I am a great fan of John Conyers, of Russ Feingold, of Jan Schakowsky. So I don�t want to make blanket statements, but there are those Democrats in Congress who are compromised, just like many of the mainstream journalists. You know, I don�t think Keith Olbermann has rolled over or Naomi Klein, so I don�t want to make blanket generalizations.

RS: I would throw in � in terms of courageous journalists � Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel, or what we call them in-house as the McClatchy boys.

JC: Yeah, the McClatchy papers are fantastic�

RS: Sy Hersh�

JC: Yeah and Bill Moyers, who is a life-long hero of mine�

RS: Yep, mine too. But what you are basically pointing to are the investigative journalists, and although not mentioned, I would add the non-corporate or alternative press.

JC: Yes and the alternative press for sure.

RS: One more question, if you could say anything to Dick Cheney, what would you say?

JC: You have the right to remain silent.

RS: So we end our talk with a citizen�s arrest. Good work. Thanks for taking the time to sit down with me.

JC: Thank you, my pleasure.

#

Enter contest to attend screening with film's writers!

War Inc., is being shown at two screenings on May 19. One screening in New York will be attended by two of the writers on the film, Mark Leyner and Jeremy Pikser. Air America�s Rachel Maddow will be on hand for a Q&A following the screening. And Raw Story�s Larisa Alexandrovna and Lindsay Beyerstein will be attending.

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