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91Though Dick focuses heavily on just a few women, The Invisible War builds to a stunning montage of victim after victim telling their story to the camera without pseudonyms or silhouettes.
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90Repressing its rage to tell an important story, The Invisible War identifies soldiers who are true heroes because they dared to fight for justice.
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83The intense interviews and damning statistics (20 percent of all female personnel have experienced sexual assault) do the work of whipping up outrage.
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Jun 25, 201280The Invisible War might be best judged as a piece of activism, in which case it's already succeeding - after seeing the film in April, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta took the responsibility for sexual assault investigations away from commanding officers and put them in the hands of higher-ranking officials.
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80This means that the violations chronicled in The Invisible War are compounded by a deep and terrible betrayal, which ripples outward from the various branches of the service into the society as a whole. This is not a movie that can be ignored.
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80Every adult who owes a debt of gratitude to American soldiers should see Kirby Dick's heartbreaking documentary about sexual violence in the military.
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Jun 16, 201280Kirby Dick's shocking investigation into widespread sexual assault in the U.S. military is an urgent call to action.
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75Dick, whose films include a revealing expose about the movie industry's film ratings board, has created yet another galvanizing call to action with The Invisible War.
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75The film's implication, quite starkly, is that a strong military doesn't favor crybabies, that a certain degree of rape is unavoidable - and inevitably, that some women may have been asking for it. One hearing noted that the victim was dressed provocatively. In her official uniform.
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Jun 22, 201275For sheer infuriation value, you can't do much better than Kirby Dick's quietly scathing documentary on rape in the US military.
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75Make no mistake, this is advocacy cinema; interviews with Defense Department and military officials notwithstanding, there's not much effort, on Dick's part or anyone else's, to consider any point of view besides the victims' and those who love or speak for them. That's what makes it difficult to watch. And that's what makes it necessary.
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75Kirby Dick's spartan use of graphics and statistics conveys arguments with little grandstanding.
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70Dick focuses on a handful of women who were sexually assaulted while on active duty, but they're only the tip of the iceberg; according to the film, which draws all its statistics from government reports, more than 20 percent of female veterans have been assaulted.
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70The Invisible War is that rare, issues-driven documentary that is so powerful it's apt to change minds.
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70The Invisible War, though revelatory, is perhaps the most straightforward film yet from a director who likes to broach the fault lines of sex and society.
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70An aptly infuriating expose of sexual abuse within the U.S. military, Kirby Dick's documentary The Invisible War calls high-ranking officials to account for turning a blind eye to a violent epidemic.
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63Rules and regulations, which the military is very good at, are about behavior. Law is about justice. The Invisible War makes all too clear that the military isn't very good at justice.
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60These victims are now no longer invisible-an achievement that shouldn't be dishonorably dismissed.