The Invisible War

Directed by Kirby Dick, The Invisible War is an investigative documentary revolving around the epidemic of rape within the United States Armed Forces – as Dick interviews several women (and one man) who were sexually assaulted while serving under the military’s assorted branches. (The filmmaker also looks at what the government, if anything, is doing about this growing problem.) There’s little doubt that Dick does a superb job of immediately drawing the viewer into the grim proceedings, as the movie’s opening stretch contains several impressively heartwrenching sequences (eg a montage of victims describing exactly what happened to them). It subsequently becomes more and more obvious that The Invisible War is at its best when focused on the personal stories of its subjects, as the engrossing nature of these tales, to an increasingly pronounced degree, stands in sharp contrast to Dick’s dry and uninvolving exploration of the government’s lackluster response to the situation (ie such segments, though interesting, almost feel as though they’d be more at home within a garden-variety news report). The inclusion of several palpably emotional interludes (eg one of the victims tearfully explains just what her husband’s support has meant to her) buoys the viewer’s interest on a fairly regular basis, which ultimately does confirm The Invisible War‘s place as an erratically-paced yet often harrowing documentary that shines a light on an important (and under-reported) topic.

**1/2 out of ****