Themes: Political Corruption, Heads of State, Political Unrest
Main Cast: Julian Bond
Release Year: 2004
Country: US
Run Time: 68 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Did the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, allow certain Republican leaders to put policies and legislation into effect that they knew would be rejected by their colleagues and constituents at nearly any other time? That's the question posed by this documentary, which offers a detailed look at the thoughts and deeds of a number of figures close to the George W. Bush administration. During Ronald Reagan's presidency, a number of neo-conservative theorists proposed that the United States should abandon its support of certain international treaties, take a more aggressive approach in taking military action against nations deemed uncooperative with U.S. interests, enact legislation that would curtail civil liberties at home, and increase military budgets by a massive margin. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and others were able to bring about these changes, either in whole or in part. But was all of this in the best interests of the American public, has the risk of terrorist attacks truly been curtailed, and what will the long-term effects of these actions be? Narrated by Julian Bond, Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire features interviews with Norman Mailer, Noam Chomsky, Scott Ritter, Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatowski, William Hartung, and Jody Williams. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
University of Massachusetts Communication professor and filmmaker Sut Jhally and Media Education Foundation producer Jeremy Earp attempt to engage viewers in critical thinking regarding U.S. foreign policy and the alleged quest by neo-conservatives to gain world domination through military might and intimidation -- with generally effective results -- in a documentary that is as informative as it is difficult to sit through. Hijacking Catastrophe is, perhaps, not as aesthetically engaging as its high-profile counterpart Fahrenheit 9/11 due to an abundance of talking heads and the simple fact that Jhally and Earp are more devoted to exposing what they see to be a great injustice rather than relating the information in a sympathetic or personal level. However, the revealing and sometimes chilling observations made by such well-informed whistleblowers as Noam Chomsky, Norman Mailer, and Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski combined with the detailed deconstruction of the much-talked-about "Wolfowitz Doctrine" of global domination through unilateral force certainly make for compelling viewing. By tracing eroding civil liberties in post-9/11 America back to the fall of the Berlin Wall -- when a small group of neo-conservatives struggled to devise a way in which the U.S. could become an unchallenged superpower while remaining in control of ever-dwindling natural resources -- Jhally and Earp engage in more than simple Bush bashing. Wolfowitz himself concedes that many of the proposed actions advised in his controversial report could not be accomplished without a catalyst in the form of a disaster "like a new Pearl Harbor" to set them in motion. When the 9/11 attacks followed almost exactly one year later, the Bush Administration's resulting policy incorporated many of Wolfowitz's ideas and seemed to point down a slippery slope toward fascism in which the quality of life for the general population is sacrificed for the benefit of a select few. Opponents argue that the actions proposed in the Wolfowitz Doctrine will not only place an unimaginable financial burden on future generations, but also flare anti-American sentiment around the globe -- decreasing stability both at home and abroad. There's no question that Jhally and Earp are, to a certain extent, preaching to the choir with Hijacking Catastrophe, but whether viewers lean to the left or right, the filmmakers certainly gave potential voters food for thought as President Bush began his bid for a second term. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Cast
Julian Bond - Narrator
Norman Mailer; Michael Franti; Noam Chomsky; Jackson Katz; Mark Crispin Miller; Jody Williams; Tariq Ait Ben Ali; Scott Ritter; Dr. Vandana Shiva; Daniel Ellsberg; Robert Jensen; Benjamin Barber; Medea Benjamin; Kevin Danaher; Mark Danner; Shadia Drury; Michael Dyson; Stan Goff; William Hartung; Chalmers Johnson; Michael T. Klare; Karen Kwiatowski; Zia Mian; Norman Solomon; Greg Speeter; Fernando Suarez del Solar; Immanuel Wallerstein; Max Wolff; Norman Soloman
Credit
Sut Jhally - Director, Jeremy Earp - Director, Kenyon King - Editor, Sut Jhally - Executive Producer, Thom Monahan - Composer (Music Score), David Rabinovitz - Cinematographer, Jeremy Earp - Producer, Thom Monahan - Sound/Sound Designer
