The Invisible War
Kirby Dick
Cinedigm
Military documentaries are by no means hard to find these days, although a film that is as emotionally unsettling as The Invisible War certainly is. Kirby Dick’s latest documentary, which focuses on sexual harassment perpetrated against women in the military, is his most powerful work to date.
The Invisible War focuses on the terrible crimes committed against female soldiers by male soldiers, and the unfortunate legal loopholes that almost outright permitted these actions. The ultimately flawed American military system has resulted in 22 per cent of all female veterans experiencing sexual trauma, according to the film.
In his film, Dick communicates this, and builds on the frustrating mountain of statistics and case studies featuring the emotional stories of several victims, including Kori Cioca. Cioca’s life is a constant struggle of dealing with the multiple health problems that have arisen as a result of her rape, as well as getting over her discomfort with intimacy.
Dick interviews Cioca and her husband in great depth, and documents her everyday life in detail. This provides the viewer with a hauntingly intimate look into the world of sexual trauma.
The film is shot and edited in a very minimalistic style, which makes its content all the more hard-hitting. Dick never inflates the facts or resorts to the sensationalist atmosphere that many other documentaries fall back on.
The bare statistics and words of the survivors of this film are enough to provide a cohesive and well-structured thesis.
At one point in the film, a rape survivor mentions how the men put up a “wall of silence” around her, where nobody would ever implicate their fellow soldier of the crimes he was committing. Silence is a theme built upon by Dick, as some of them films’ most powerful scenes are shrouded in silence.
A husband is rendered speechless with tears, Cioca stares at her daughter playing outside, Cioca’s husband ventures to touch her hand. All of these scenes are shrouded in a silence that makes them all the more powerful, a directorial touch that furthers the understated yet powerful aesthetic of the film.
The movie has very few shortcomings. The material at the end of the film feels somewhat repetitive, but this is mostly because Dick has already done an excellent job in illuminating the issue. I would have also appreciated more material on exactly why the American government is having such difficulty intervening in a problem with so much data and evidence.
The movie has much to say, not only about the flaws of the military, but also about the fabric of Western culture. The movie includes interviews with both men and women, and there are multiple underlying themes between all of them. Most prevalently, they focus on the fact that society’s perception of sex has become increasingly warped. The film illustrates the frequency in which women are punished for adultery or inappropriate conduct even after it is proved that they were raped. Dick argues that this is an issue that should be prevented using proper education and more governmental involvement in internal military issues.
The Invisible War is an excellent documentary, and balances a wealth of information with tastefully portrayed emotional stories. The film is undoubtedly an excellent example of documentary making, and one of Kirby Dick’s finest works.
