THE MOVIE:

The first on-screen text in Kirby Dick's The Invisible War informs us that all of the film's statistics come from government sources. They are, to put it mildly, shocking. Over 20% of female vets have been sexually assaulted while serving our country. 200,000 assaults and rapes had been reported by 1991--and that was twenty years ago, and that only counts how many were reported. Fifteen percent of incoming Navy recruits entered the service with a previous history of sexual assault or rape; that's twice the rate as among civilian population. It is an environment, Dick contends, that can attract a sexual predator--and that is set up to not only excuse the perpetrator, but to punish the victim. Most of the latter are discharged; most of the former are not. The Department of Defense knows it is a problem, and makes bold statements about "zero tolerance" policies. But nothing changes.

Dick is a bit of a bomb-tosser, and is thus the ideal filmmaker to tell this story--he's a director who's good at getting his audience in a lather, whether over the hypocrisy of the movie ratings system (This Film is Not Yet Rated) or closeted gay politicians (Outrage). Here, he assembles face after face, woman after woman (and a few men, too) to tell story after story of rape, ostracizing, and injustice. Dozens of veterans are featured, from all branches of the armed services, each story more harrowing than the last. They were harassed, they were stalked, they were assaulted, they were raped, they were ignored. Many were expected to report the crimes to the men who perpetrated them. More than one woman was charged with adultery--since the perpetrator was a married man. For raising objections, for reporting the crimes, for seeking justice, they were dismissed from service. Most struggle to this day with PTSD, depression, and shame.

There is a history of this sort of thing, of course: the 1991 Navy Tailhook scandal, in which female recruits were forced to run a "gauntlet" that amounted to a gang rape; the 1996 accusations of 30 women at the Army Aberdeen Proving Ground; the 142 allegations over a decade at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, which finally surfaced in 2003. After each, pronouncements were made and "prevention programs" were implemented (Dick shows the laughable posters and training videos), but the crimes continued, as close to the Congressional investigations as a mile away, at Washington's Marine Barracks.

The personal stories are powerful. Lt. Elle Helmer, USMC, talks about her 2006 rape, where NCIS closed the investigation after three days, and then her own commander charged her with "conduct unbecoming." Michael Matthews, U.S. Air Force, talks about the humiliation of his rape in the hands of two fellow recruits, which he kept a secret for decades. The case of Kori Cioca, U.S. Coast Guard, provides something of a story spine for the documentary; she was first assaulted and then raped by a superior officer, and she has run into miles of red tape for her VA claim to treat the jaw that he dislocated.

There is more, sadly, much more--the suicide attempts, the dishonorable discharges, the dismissed lawsuits, the stooges who defend the half-assed sensitivity training and the current system's method of leaving all investigations at the discretion of the commanding officer. Dick puts it all together, and seems as astonished as his audience. The Invisible War is impeccably assembled, gathering force as the stories and arguments are collected into an indictment of a broken, victimizing entity.

Video & Audio:

The anamorphic widescreen image relies often on some pretty rough-looking archival materials, but the new interviews and B-roll footage--much of it strikingly shot on HD cameras--are crisp and sharp. Some of the audio from that footage is a little on the thin side, but the 5.1 surround mix is still perfectly adequate and mostly clean and audible. A 2.0 stereo track is also available.

Extras:

Director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering contribute an informative and impassioned Audio Commentary track, in which they discuss (in roughly equal parts) the filmmaking, the issues, and the reaction to the film. It's a fine supplement, with lots of valuable additional information.

Next up are Extended Interviews with Regina and John Vasquez (4:19), in which the former talks about her drugging and rape by a fellow Marine, the latter (her husband) about how her psychological damage affected their relationship; the interviews aren't the kind of raw footage that sometimes is labeled as such on DVDs, but is more of a loose deleted scene.

The Sundance Film Festival Post-Screening Speak-Out (6:08) features clips from a meeting between the film's subjects and other survivors in Park City after the film's premiere. It's well-edited and (obviously) difficult. The "Survivor Retreat" featurette (11:41) looks at the work of Susan Avila-Smith, the founder of the survivor outreach group VetWow. And "Cowboy Up" (3:41) spotlights the Moonfall Ranch in Colorado, where veterans suffering from PTSD and military sexual trauma engage in equine therapy.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I first saw The Invisible War at Sundance in January of this year, where it was the object of much interest and motivation--this is a movie that got people going, asking questions, asking for change. One of those changes came to pass--as the film's postscipt notes, secretary of defense Leon Penetta saw the film and, in response, changed the military's rules about who can prosecute these accusations. But, as that text notes, it's "not enough"--still too little, way too late. This bitter, powerful film is a howl of anger and a cry of injustice.

Jason lives in New York. He holds an MA in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from NYU.