"One of those rare films where one listens carefully to the dialogue as one laughs, weeps."
- GORE VIDAL, Writer
"Deliriously hilarious. With heart and soul too. Like spending some raucous night with your craziest, smartest friends."
- SUSAN SARANDON, Actor
"WAR, INC." set in the fictional Terakistan (ph), where tanks carry advertising banners, journalists are confined to the Emerald City, and the fictional corporation that runs Terakistan (ph) is run by a former vice president of the United States, who is pushing the familiar rational, "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 building to do. "WAR, INC." is a satire that feels disturbingly like a documentary."
KEITH OLBERMANN, Host of MSNBC COUNTDOWN
"Extend the current practice of outsourcing the 'business' of war as far as you can reach, and what do you get? WAR, INC. the first 100% privatized war. John Cusack's film may be seen as just a wild fanstasy, but I saw it as a decision to laugh rather than cry about the harsh reality of Bush-era, oil-driven, profit-reaping corporate warfare. And laugh I did. See it!"
- JAN SCHAKOWSKY, Rep (D-IL). House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Author of "Stop Outsourcing Security", a bill to, effectively, ban Blackwater and and other private security forces in US war zones/Co-sponsor to HR333, a bill to file articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney
“The courage it took to make this movie is matched only by the importance that its message is heard. This is for every thinking man (or woman) in America who does not want their blood split – or blood spilt in their name – unless it means something greater than all of us”.
- LARA LOGAN, Chief Foreign Correspondent, CBS News and 60 Minutes
"War, Inc. is one of those rare satires with the danger left in. It cranks up the dial on the state of privatized war just enough that we can finally see our present clearly. As you're watching it, you can't help wondering: Can these guys really get away with this? Are we all going to get in trouble? It's an extremely good feeling. It's what risk feels like."
- NAOMI KLEIN, Writer - The Shock Doctrine
"WAR, INC. is a powerful new film that pulls off the near-impossible: finding a savage reality-altering humor amidst the tragedy of Iraq. It delivers a wicked punch in the gut, making you laugh, wince, and get outraged all at the same time."
- ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, The Huffington Post
"John Cusack's WAR, INC. is this generation's Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange and The Wizard of Oz mixed together with the un-embedded reporting of Naomi Klein spiced up with a dash of South Park. It is a powerful, visionary response to the cheerleading culture of the corporate media and a pliant Hollywood afraid of its own shadow. Cusack is not predicting the future, he is forcefully--and with dark humor-- branding the present for what it is. Anyone who thinks WAR, INC. is "over-the-top" has not been paying attention to real life. With 630 corporations like Blackwater and Halliburton on the US government payroll in Iraq getting 40% of the more than $2 billion Washington spends every week on the occupation, Cusack's "futuristic" film is not far from the way things really are. A powerful, for-profit war corporation, Tamerlane, run by the former US vice-president; tanks with Nascar-like sponsor logos speeding around the streets firing at will; "implanted journalists" watching the war
in IMAX theaters in the heavily-fortified "Emerald City" to get "full spectrum sensory reality" while eating popcorn; a secretive "viceroy" running the show from behind a digital curtain; a pop star, Yonica Babyyeah, singing in the war zone, "You say you want to invade me,
baby, enslave me, baby...I want to blow you....up" are all part of Cusack's battlefield in the fictitious Turaqistan. But how far are they from the realities of the radically-privatized corporate war machine Washington has unleashed on the world? WAR, INC. is already an underground cult classic but it deserves a much wider viewing."
- JEREMY SCAHILL, New York Times Bestselling Author
"War, Inc. is a modern day 'Putney Swope' - worlds apart but with all the same issues - whether corporate America in advertising or corporate America in the business of war, this is a movie about the comedy and horror of greed. Now, back to my shit jokes..."
- SARAH SILVERMAN, Comedian
"Loved it... Aims right at the core of the corruption in Cheney/Bush enterprises. Plus - it's very funny."
JOHN AMATO, Crooks & Liars
"Love it!!!!!
The world's a fucked up place, you have to laugh or else you'll cry, what the hell are we gonna we teach our kids? Dog eat Dog, Kill or be Killed. People prefer celebrity to love, i once went out with a girl who had breasts on her back - she wasn't much to look at but boy was she great to dance with!!?? Death sells, time is money, there are no pockets in a shroud! Time is running out fast man! Make bombs not war, there is no gravity - the world sucks! I had a friend who died but luckily he didn't die of anything serious. You really do find love in the most unexpected places, I come from a very musical background-even our sewing machine was a singer! You will kill, you in turn will be killed, and the people who kill you will be killed. Dr. Strangelove for today!"
- DAMIEN HIRST, Artist/Comedian/Belly Dancer/Handy Man/Sex Pest/AKA "Mr. Love"
"Calling up the spirit of Catch 22 and MASH, WAR, INC. is the kind of movie you rarely see these days, a movie with guts, content, laughs and heart."
- TIM ROBBINS, Actor
"This is a movie that reminded me of Dr. Stranglelove and Apocalypse Now and Catch-22, and by association, a time in America when black comedy was understood to be the only appropriate means of understanding the kind of institutional evil we are once again confronted with. I hope to hell it's a hit, because that would mean at least there are enough Americans left who understand whence lies the way back from absurdity."
- BILL MAHER, Host of Real Time with Bill Maher
"WAR, INC. is a pyrotechnic genre-buster that will diddle your synapses but good. This film is like a petal of pickled ginger: tart, bright, and just searing enough to resonate."
- DIABLO CODY, Writer
"A brain-twisting, Machiavellian ride through the 'what if' of future corporate warmongering. The most disturbing part about watching it is how familiar that nightmarish scenario seems. The best part is the belly laughs.
Oh, and by the way, the filmmakers seem clinically insane ;)"
- LIZ PHAIR, Artist/Songwriter/Agent Provocateur
"It’s a rare movie that offers, alternatively, scathing political commentary, broad satire, and a gorgeous pop star dropping a poisonous scorpion down her trousers, but that’s the unique mix that John Cusack has concocted for us here. It’s a little obvious to say that War, Inc. is a smart and though-provoking movie; we get plenty of those from the horn-rimmed glasses, documentary-making crowd … but too few that make you enjoy the ride as much as this one. I’ve seen every one of John Cusack’s movies that end with a romantic kiss in Central Park; there’s none of that here, but go see it anyway. It’s better."
- CRAIG FERGUSON, Author/Comedian/Host of CBS's The Late Late Show
"WAR, INC. is scathing, farsighted, bold, and truer than nonfiction. Cusack and the stellar cast of WAR, INC., don't blink. WAR, INC. is a Swiftian allegory of the world not as it might be in some possible future but as it is today, with a performance from Ben Kingsley as memorable as Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove. John Cusack has proved himself to be one of the most thoughtful, intelligent, and risk-taking film makers of our time. In the upside down world we are in today, we need more films like WAR, INC. and more artists like Cusack."
-ANTHONY ARNOVE, author, Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal
"Okay, here's the concept: James Bond meets John Cusack. Halliburton meets Blackwater. Oil meets Vinegar. President Eisenhower meets President Bush. Private Contractor meets General Disorder. Democrats meet Republicans. John McLaughlin meets Keith Olbermann. Chinatown meets Star Wars. Dick Cheney meets Dennis Kucinich. There Will Be Blood meets Looney Tunes. Spy meets Spy. John McCain meets the Constitution. Satire meets Reality. Democracy meets Participation. I'm tellin' ya, if this flick doesn't end the war, nothin' will!"
PAUL KRASSNER, Independent Dupe
"One of the finest, funniest, most thought-provoking, brilliant movies of the year. You MUST see WAR, INC.!
- THOM HARTMANN , Air America Radio Host/NY Times Bestselling and Award Winning Author
"WAR, INC.'s dark and unapologetic humor smashes through layers of lies with such ferocity and with such precision as to lay waste to years of imperial miseducation in moments. Perhaps only through such satire can the cynical brutality of the War Party be revealed to those of us who
pay its way. My outrage has been reclaimed. Three cheers!"
- SCOTT HORTON, Antiwar.com
"For this profound and shockingly funny effort to stick it to the man, War in the Middle East reaches an absurdist fever pitch in WAR, INC. --a film that’s both unforgiving and uncensored. Toss in inspired performances by Marisa Tomei, Hilary Duff, Sir Ben Kingsley, Joan Cusack, and Dan Aykroyd, and you wind up with a refreshing and unconventional spring comedy.
- NEIL PATRICK STEWART, LA Confidential
"WAR, INC. is a satire that goes over the top and stays there."
- DAVID CARR, New York Times
""War, Inc. is one of those mystifying cinematic works that defies categorization. Its constant genre-hopping from satire to soap opera to piercing sincerity leaves the audience feeling literally shell-shocked. Just like the experience of watching Brecht's Mother Courage, you feel the chaos of war and its profiteers, but on a global and far more sinister corporate level. Surprising, shocking and one to keep you mulling for hours...."
- VICKY WARD, Vanity Fair
"I can't explain anything anymore about the war or politics or hot reporters or terrifying pop songs without referencing WAR, INC.You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll never be able to look at the Vice President again without seeing Dan Aykroyd straining in the bathroom. Very, very funny and very, very true."
- RACHEL MADDOW, Host of Air America
"Really funny. I think this type of satire is by far the hardest thing to pull off successfully. If it doesn't work, it REALLY doesn't work but this one does, with great dialogue and actors able to make it sing. Reminded me of the kind of filmmaking Billy Wilder , Kubrick and Richard Brooks have done in the past. Recalls movies like Dr. Strangelove, One Two Three and Wag The Dog. I love this kind of cynical, acerbic moviemaking and seeing it reminds me just how much this kind of thing is missing today. It's perfect for this election year and hopefully will find its audience. This is not a movie for everyone but those who get it, will love it. "
- PETE HAMMOND, Box Office Magazine
"If you think Bush, Cheney and McCain are running the Iraq War absurdly, wait 'til you see how War, Inc. takes it to the outer fringes of reality and shoves it back in their faces (or somewhere). I know it's only March, but this is the most compelling movie I've seen in 2008. And it's as fun as it is viscerally stimulating and provocative. I can't wait to see it again!
- HOWIE KLEIN, Publisher of DownWithTyranny.com/Former President of Reprise Records
"War, Inc. is a well-written war satire about corporate greed, riddled with hilariously executed absurdities. Totally fresh, War, Inc. achieves what Hollywood won't attempt, comedy in the theatre of war. But it still has a satisfying Hollywood ending!"
- LIZA RICHARDSON, KCRW DJ/Music Supervisor
"John Cusack has exposed the Blackwater / Halliburton military complex with a lens that is as much 60 minutes as it is South Park, as frequently surreal as it is spoof. War, Inc. is a reality show where none of the contestants are survivors."
- WAYNE BARRETT, Senior Editor for the Village Voice
"WAR, INC. pulls out all the stops to shine a damningly aggressive light on the privatization of war -- It 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."
- LARISA ALEXANDROVNA, Managing Editor www.rawstory.com
WOW!
Who knew that disaster capitalism had a humongous, wacky theme park (a.k.a. the Middle East)?
This movie is nothing less than a thrills’n’chills, satirical, world-wide roller coaster ride. The twist is that John Cusack and company have transmogrified those scary little tin cans on tracks into ordnance enhanced Hummers—buckle up, buttercup! The go-for-broke cast that made this zingy, screwball-nightmare comedy— Cusack, his sister Joan, the best comedic actress I’ve seen, Marisa Tomei, the heart and soul of any show she’s in, Hillary Duff, brilliantly disguised as a Middle Eastern Western style pop star—a live scorpion is her Victoria’s Secret—and Sir Ben Kingsley, a dystopic Wizard of Oz (!), have outsourced the whole story to the only place where Dr. Strangelove and Wag The Dog could produce their love child and have it blessed by the Marx Brothers. That place? Wherever this movie is playing. To fully appreciate the hysterical, mind-boggling ramifications of this boast, you’ve got to see War, Inc.” You owe it to your country. I laughed, I cried, I moved to Canada."
- ROBBIE CONAL, Legendary Grafitti Guerilla Assassin Master
"America has been asleep. Tranquilized by dreams of personal fortune. Protected from danger by a professional army. Obsessed with making our children into brands we can be proud of. Misdirected by false spiritual leaders. Riding the crest of an unheard of twenty-five year period of prosperity, no one has wanted to make waves and jeopardize their own payday. The press and media speak in a whisper – if we even take off our ipods to listen.
Into this mass trance John Cusack has thrown WAR, INC. – a bomb in the wilderness. Funny and hostile, intellectual and violent, exaggerated and truthful, it demands that we wake up. Conceived and executed when our national denial was at a peak, that the film exists at all is an act of courage.
Functioning more like an oracle than a movie star, Cusack is warning us. The most vital political force in the world, the American government, is under attack. The attackers hide behind a fabric of lies while they claim to protect us. Their only ideology is power and the money that flows with it. They claim to be pro-military but the American military is close to broken; they claim to want small government unless it interrupts their gravy train; they claim to further democracy but they have no idea what democracy is.
All these lies are based on the ultimate lie – that we can protect our American heritage without sacrifice. This lie, like all the others, is about to be destroyed. War, Inc. pushes it over the edge. The film is a disturbing truth that should be seen by everyone, no matter what their politics."
- PHIL STUTZ, M.D.
"It's a bewildering mix of very smart and very dumb..."
- PETER RAINER, Christian Science Monitor
"WAR, INC. is a comedy born of a nuclear bomb-sized rage. This film not only doesn’t take prisoners — its prisoners are lined up and executed on the spot. There is little subtlety to be found on screen, but then, the subject matter being satirized bears little subtlety as well. Trying to satirize the clearly satirical elements of a war-torn, corporate-branded and televised “reality”-infused world is a tough task. How to mock the daily outrages smeared across television and computer screens? The makers of WAR, INC.give it a shot, and it is a bruised and bloodied vision they bring to the big screen. If all this sounds deliriously out of control, it is. The filmmakers are trying to keep in step with a culture gone insane. "WAR, INC. is far from a perfect film, but there is more here that hits than misses. It’s Apocalypse Now as a bleak, broad, brooding, black comedy."
- THE BURBANK LEADER
"That a contemporary American movie with a major star could be as gleefully gonzo and (self-) righteously pissed off as War, Inc. might astonish even a Fox News commentator."
- JASON ANDERSON, Eye on Canada
"Whereas Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Dr. Strangelove showed that the power of military technology in the hands of man could be extremely disastrous, WAR, INC. shows that disaster in the hands of man can create an extremely powerful and immoral economy."
- TORONTO METRO NEWS
"I thought the film was brilliant, though it was unnerving to realize that, even if you strip away all the nationalism, religion and racism, this war is going to be intractable. A fever dream, indeed."
- ELAINE TUENNERMAN, CROOKS & LIARS ticket giveaway winner
VANITY FAIR by Vicky Ward.... 
- interview with Cusack & Leyner
