War, Inc. is a political satire that just opened in LA and New York, produced, co-written, and starring John Cusack, Hillary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Joan Cusack, Ben Kingsley, Dan Aykroyd.
Cusack plays Brand Hauser, a hit-man for hire who is deployed to the fictional country of Turaqistan to kill a Middle Eastern oil baron. Hauser's employer is Tamerlane, a secretive for-profit military corporation headed by the former US vice president, played by Dan Aykroyd. In this scene, Hauser receives his mission orders:
BRAND HAUSER: Turaqistan. What's the gig?
TAMERLANE CEO: Omar Sharif.
BRAND HAUSER: Omar Sharif?
TAMERLANE CEO: Yeah, CEO of Wuji Gas, the Yujigastani conglomerate. Terminate. Do do that voodoo that you do so well. You'll be working directly under the viceroy, just appointed by the president. His identity is still being withheld until further notice. It's on a need-to-know basis.
BRAND HAUSER: And no one needs to know.
TAMERLANE CEO: He asked for you personally.
BRAND HAUSER: What's my cover?
TAMERLANE CEO: Trade show producer.
BRAND HAUSER: Trade show? What show? What show? What show?
TAMERLANE CEO: Oh, it's going to be huge, Hauser. Tamerlane is sponsoring a trade expo, Brand USA. It's our big launch, bringing democracy to this part of the world. Plus, now that we've
bombed the shit out of them, well, there's a lot of rebuilding to do.
BRAND HAUSER: Shows a nice spirit.
TAMERLANE CEO: Well, somebody has to help these poor people. This moment presents a great opportunity for Tamerlane, and the United States, for that matter, not to mention the people of
Turaqistan. To top it all off, there's going to be a gala wedding! Isn't that great?
BRAND HAUSER: Seems like a pretty elaborate cover. I'm actually going to be responsible for all that shit?
TAMERLANE CEO: This is a historic moment, Hauser: the first war ever to be 100 percent outsourced to private enterprise. Tamerlane jets. Tamerlane tanks. Tamerlane soldiers. And to top it all off, a Brand USA Expo. It's your show, baby.
Excerpts from his Democracy Now interview on jump.
Complete Democracy Now interview is here (audio, video and transcripty.)
AMY GOODMAN: John Cusack joins us now from London, where he's shooting a new film. In addition to starring in War, Inc., he also co-wrote and produced the film. His other Iraq War-themed film is Grace is Gone. It came out last year, and it's coming out on DVD next week.
We're also joined by Democracy Now! correspondent, Jeremy Scahill. His book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, is coming out next week in paperback.
John Cusack, welcome. Thank you for taking time from making your new movie. Talk about the genesis of this film, War, Inc.
JOHN CUSACK: Well, hello, and thanks for having me on the show. I'm a great admirer of it. I think, probably like a lot of the great journalists that you've mentioned and the other guest you have on the show, Jeremy Scahill, I think I was probably trying to put the Iraq fiasco into a larger context and maybe put it through a different sort of lens and tell a different narrative than I think the corporate narrative that we've been getting about the Iraq War and explore some of these themes.
You know, when we hear these words like "privatization," you know, what does that mean? And in the case of the Iraq War, it meant outsourcing what you would imagine to be the very core functions of government and the very thing that makes you a state, to turn that into a for-profit business. And we've gone so far down the rabbit hole now, where actually torture is being outsourced. So it's strange and savage times. So that was really kind of the genesis of it.
And there's also a climate where people were telling Americans to watch what they say and-you know, and the hypocrisy and I think-and the stench of lies was so intense, you know, it would make your eyes water. So, as a filmmaker and citizen, you think, well, how do you contextualize this? And so, that was really why I wanted to make it.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's go to another clip of War, Inc., where Brand Hauser confronts the head of the CIA, played by Ben Kingsley.
WALKEN: Every empire is summed up in Rome. The Romans, Hauser, dudes of the human race, torchbearers of culture. You and I are centurions, honor bound to defend civilization against the barbarians.
BRAND HAUSER: Let's cut the [blank], Walken. I like killing people as much as the next guy, but I signed up to kill the bad ones. Health clinics, trade unionists, journalists, agricultural co-ops, Catholic liberation theologians, impoverished Colombian coffee farmers-these are the barbarians, the depraved opponents of civilization? We turn Central America into a [blank] graveyard. Whoever momentarily interrupts the accumulation of our wealth, we pulverize. I'm just not feeling good about that anymore, sir.
WALKEN: Then do what you have to do, son.
AMY GOODMAN: Excerpt from War, Inc. Juan?
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, John Cusack, obviously you're dealing with weighty and tragic situations, but you've chosen satire. Why the satire approach, did you feel was necessary?
JOHN CUSACK: Well, I think, you know, all satire or absurdism does is take current trends to the logical conclusion, you know, if you follow it a couple weeks or a couple years down the road. And some would argue, I think rightfully so, that we're already there. So, you know, I think at times you have to put a different lens on it in order to kind of process the information, I think. And, you know, there's a great tradition of satire mocking power elites and-you know, whether they be kings or corporate kings-and you know, shaming them and naming things and calling things what they are.
"Shaming them and naming things and calling things what they are." There's a reason that these days Hollywood actors are the most respected Americans in the world.
Actors like Angelina Jolie have dedicated themselves to humanitarian work, bringing desperately needed attention and vital resources to problems our political leaders have done much more to cause than to solve. And while our political leaders remain incapable of facing up to the whole truth of what we have become, actors like John Cusack show the world that Americans as a people have not lost the capacity to stand up and jeer that began the liberating process of de-colonialization 332 yerars ago.
If you want to feel proud to be an American, maybe you just ought to go see this movie this weekend.
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