Badmovies.org Forum

This is a film I'm amazed that there's so little I heard about.  It's a documentary about this idea: what would happen if the U.S. was no longer the world's "policemen" and it withdrew all it's military bases and personnel from around the world?

The documentary starts with a fictional politician running from President under that premise, noting that, the U.S. spends more on the military than pretty much the entire world COMBINED.

From there, the movie is divided into three sections (four if you count that bonus chapter on the DVD): we begin in Europe, go to the Middle East and then end in Asia.  The documentary covers dozens from interview from various in several different fields like politicians, historians, military leaders, etc.  The speculate on the effects (good and bad) a U.S. military withdraw would have. 

For Europe, the idea is examined that if the U.S. didn't intervene in world conflicts, how well would the Europe Union do in its stead?  This is accompanied by recent examples (Bosnia and so forth). 

With the Middle East, of course, oil and Israel are mentioned prominently, with various factors and opinions on both subjects.

Finally with Asia, the film covers such subject as why the U.S. has military based in various countries which should be able to handle that on function on their own (Japan, for instance), and they also look at Tiawan and it's tumultuous relationship with China.

The bonus chapter covers the area around South America.

Now, the downside to a film like this is the subject is so vast and complex, I don't think an hour and half documentary can even begin to cover all the dimensions to it.  (Course, in fair, I doubt a 50 hour documentary could cover everything.)  Well, I did learn a lot of stuff I didn't know (the theory behind why we have bases in Japan, for instance) there were a lot of questions I would liked to have had answers to that weren't really discussed.  Many subjects that you think would be larger part of the film (whether the U.S. should or should not support this nation or that) are given only the smallest of mention. 

Still, it's a very fascinating movie, and I'm surprise so little has been said about it.  Even over at the films imdb page there's not a single posting in the message board, despite what you think would be very timely subject matter.

Anyway, if you get a chance, you should give it a view, you can queue it from Netflix.