Scott Horton Interviews John Cusack
May 22nd, 2008
Actor, writer and producer John Cusack discusses his new satire War Inc., which opens Friday, May 23rd, in New York and Los Angeles, his outrage at the criminality of modern American war profiteers, the need for a grassroots bumrush of the first showings to guarantee national distribution, some critics’ complaints that the movie “hits too close to home,” the great journalists whose work has inspired him, the socialization of the costs of all these private armies onto the American tax payer, the outsourcing of interrogation, the betrayals of the Democrats, the banality of evil, the short-changing of the troops while private mercenaries cash in and militarism in the movies. (Watch out! A few bad words.)
MP3 here. (25:11)
John Cusack is an actor, writer and producer.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.”
Scott, I also know someone who has worked with Marisa Tomei. I took classes from him here in Austin.
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:23 am
An idea came to me while listening to the John Cusack interview. Here’s a way to turn the propaganda around on the war party.
Somebody in congress needs to sponsor a bill to tie soldiers pay to private contractors pay. Yeah, let’s support the troops as much as we support the contractors!
After all, aren’t the soldiers taking a bigger risk? Equal pay is really not enough!With this strategy we hit the war party where they hurt most, in the pocketbook!
Seriously, it’s worth a try!!!
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:41 am
Hilary Duff makes anything worth watching.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:35 am
Haven’t listened yet, but I get the impression from the description that if only the (nominally) private sector stopped profiting from the war, it’d be more legitimate. Ugh.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:11 am
Dain, Nah.
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Awesome.
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
What we have to do is send the results of our colon cleansers and duoche bags to blackwater. If we really got on this and sent them what they really deserve from us? They would probably illegally dump our dumps. We should contact the EPA and make sure they don’t do it.
Anybody have an address for blackwater?
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Dain?
Have an address?
May 24th, 2008 at 10:23 am
While some critics have already said this movie dredges up “old” issues, this WP article brings the subject of profiteering right back to the forefront. Cusack is brilliant and apparently paid for much of the production of War Inc. himself.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/22/AR2008052203751_pf.html
May 24th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Dear Mr/ Horton,
How come that on my dinasaur of a computer I can only get 2.19 out of your interviews and with Charles Goyette I get the whole story. It really upsets me because I like listening to you. With Charles Goyette I have no problem, and the whole thing plays out.
May 24th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
I don’t know… Has it always been that way? Try clearing your temp files(?) What if you click on the stream player thingy?
Please let me know…
May 25th, 2008 at 4:53 am
From the clips in the interview I can’t wait to see this film. I doubt it will be in Japan anytime soon so I hope it does well in the US and I’ll see it as soon as possible and I’ll promote it.
Private armies are as old as the privateers and used in the same way to avoid responsibility. And John is right, if the US government is paying for it then it isn’t really (free market) private its actually a state control of industry and last time I looked up what that was we called it communist.
May 25th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Ryan,
You’ll love it. I promise.
May 26th, 2008 at 6:22 am
I always liked John Cusak’s acting abilities, it’s very nice to see that he is taking an interest in fostering peace. Good work,Mr. Cusak
May 28th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
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May 29th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Good for Mr. Cusack for making a satire on war. It’s pretty disturbing though to see how pro government the vast majority of people in hollywood are. Yeah, the private contractors are bad and take money from taxpayers, but so does the government army, and this is a side issue to the much larger issue of an imperialistic US war of aggression that has killed at least 500, 00 Iraqis.
June 8th, 2008 at 3:33 am
Scott,
Kick ass.
Mike
June 24th, 2008 at 3:33 am
[...] of modern american war profiteers, the need for a grassroots bumrush of the first showingshttp://antiwar.com/radio/2008/05/22/john-cusack/Category:American writers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia+ american writers by ethnic or national [...]