The Invisible War, a documentary by Kirby Dick, is about Military Sexual Assault. The movie shows the
awful military sexual assault through several interviews with real-life
Military rape victims. The 97-minute-long film is about the experiences and
consequences of seven or eight Veterans that were victimized during their
service. There were almost 100 people interviewed in total for the film.
The interviews captured the vulnerable
experiences that these veterans had and helped the viewer empathize with them. The
movie brings forth a wave of emotions from the viewer with the miserable
testimonies from the relatives of the rape victims who explain how hard it was
for that person. The interviews were also very emotionally effective because
they usually ended with the interviewee crying.
The film uses archival footage (WWII
videos of the military happily asking women to join), which is a bitter
contrast to the image that the victims give. The main interviewee was Kori Cioca,
a military rape victim who has PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, and a facial injury
that left her unable to chew. She was raped during her deportation by one of
her superiors and she then had to report the rape to the rapist.
The movie addresses the issue of the
military’s failure to support the veterans working for them. What this issue
basically is is that the military requires soldiers to put their lives in jeopardy
for the country but refuses to give them the most basic protection against
rapists in the armed forces. Most likely for legal reasons, the movie doesn’t
disclose the names of rapists, only the location and rank of each officer
connected with the victim. During the documentary, high military officials
tried to defend the system by showing unprofessional military videos that warn
soldiers about sexual assault.
The director incorporated text by
putting in statistics of the number of people affected by sexual assault in the
military. The movie uses several cinematic effects throughout it that makes it
a very interesting documentary to watch. There is no real plot but there is
definitely a structure to it. The victims and their families are interviewed
first, followed by interviews with people somehow related to the story. An
example of this was when Kori was interviewed about the legal part of her
assault and the next interview was with a military executive about the legal
procedure for prosecuting a military official.
The
director decided not to reenact any part of the film for obvious reasons, so
there wasn’t really any dramatic aspect. The music was only really noticeable
during the interviews where soft music played in the background. This is an
excellent and compelling documentary and I strongly recommend it.
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