The Review
"The Invisible War," directed by Kirby Dick is an Oscar nominated documentary. The film explores the topic of sexual assault in the military from the perspective of 4 victims. The veterans share their truly heartbreaking stories. They show us the victim's family, and they comment on the assault as well. They all say the same thing, they were never the same. The title is more than fitting, of 3,374 cases of sexual assault reported only 484 cases went to trial and a mere 376 were actually convicted. But more than 70% of assaults go unreported.
They do interview some military officials and ask for them to comment. Their interviews seemed short and the interviewer may have been asking bias questions. They asked the head of the Prevention of Sexual Assault campaign how many cases go unreported. The women stated that she did not have that information, the interviewer then asked another question regarding unreported assaults. She again said she didn't know that information. The director made her look not credible and depicted her as stupid.
The film explores what they believe to be a reasonable solution to the rising number of assault cases. They believe that crimes in the military should be prosecuted by an unbiased third party. Currently an officer's Commander acts as their judge, jury, and executioner. Most women are punished or shamed when they try to report a crime. Many can't report because the superior they report to was the attacker. But how do you prosecute an active soldier? You would have to pull their entire unit for a proper investigation. They would need witness statements, evidence, lawyers and everything else needed for a fair trial. Can we really afford to be taking active units out of their war zones? Our military needs to operate smoothly and seamlessly. If soldiers and officers are constantly being taken out of work to be questioned and to testify, how will we get anything done? Overall I thought it was a very compelling film, I just wish we could've gotten a more well rounded picture.
"The Invisible War," directed by Kirby Dick is an Oscar nominated documentary. The film explores the topic of sexual assault in the military from the perspective of 4 victims. The veterans share their truly heartbreaking stories. They show us the victim's family, and they comment on the assault as well. They all say the same thing, they were never the same. The title is more than fitting, of 3,374 cases of sexual assault reported only 484 cases went to trial and a mere 376 were actually convicted. But more than 70% of assaults go unreported.
They do interview some military officials and ask for them to comment. Their interviews seemed short and the interviewer may have been asking bias questions. They asked the head of the Prevention of Sexual Assault campaign how many cases go unreported. The women stated that she did not have that information, the interviewer then asked another question regarding unreported assaults. She again said she didn't know that information. The director made her look not credible and depicted her as stupid.
The film explores what they believe to be a reasonable solution to the rising number of assault cases. They believe that crimes in the military should be prosecuted by an unbiased third party. Currently an officer's Commander acts as their judge, jury, and executioner. Most women are punished or shamed when they try to report a crime. Many can't report because the superior they report to was the attacker. But how do you prosecute an active soldier? You would have to pull their entire unit for a proper investigation. They would need witness statements, evidence, lawyers and everything else needed for a fair trial. Can we really afford to be taking active units out of their war zones? Our military needs to operate smoothly and seamlessly. If soldiers and officers are constantly being taken out of work to be questioned and to testify, how will we get anything done? Overall I thought it was a very compelling film, I just wish we could've gotten a more well rounded picture.