DIRTY WARS – The Review

I expect political documentaries to be one-sided and they almost always are, but the sign of a good one is that it makes me care enough about the subject to research the other side of the story. Reporter Jeremy Scahill, who muckrakes for The Nation, is the writer, narrator, and on-screen host of director Richard Rowley’s sobering DIRTY WARS. He questions whether American citizens should be assassinated for committing crimes against the U.S. without being brought to trial and is concerned about “Collateral damage”, the military term for civilian casualties. The doc opens with accounts of U.S. raids in Yemen and Afghanistan and that both resulted in large amounts of civilian casualties including pregnant women but, according to Scahill, few, if any, dead terrorists. DIRTY WARS blows the lid off the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), a shadowy outfit empowered by the Obama administration to assassinate those on a growing “kill list”. Unrestrained and mysterious, the JSOC strikes in nations no war has been officially declared such as Yemen and Somalia and Scahill uncovers suspicious activity at every turn. Following his leads to Yemen, Scahill seems convinced he has a major scoop that could link the JSOC’s malfeasance to the White House, but becomes (understandably) paranoid that he himself could become a “person of interest” to American intelligence (if he soon meets with an “unfortunate accident”, I predict Jake Gyllenhaal will play him in a movie).

DIRTY WARS is slickly produced and convincing. It constructs its narrative through graphic (if low-res) images filmed on cell phones, handheld field footage, and interviews with both survivors of violence and insensitive American military brass (a general callously speculates that a pregnant Afghan woman U.S. soldiers gunned down might have been an enemy combatant. – “I’ve been shot at by women.”). Unfortunately, DIRTY WARS is too often more often about the investigation than the subject being investigated. There’s excessive footage of Scahill furrowing his brow, typing on his laptop, strapping on a bulletproof vest, grocery shopping, furrowing his brow some more, and staring off into space. I got tired of looking at the guy. It’s all a recreation of his investigation but it’s pointless padding and undercuts the urgency of his message. DIRTY WARS works best when it focuses on the story of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen who became an influential Muslim leader with ties to global terrorism and was eventually killed by a drone strike. Archival footage illustrates al-Awlaki transition from peaceful U.S. ally to rabid jihadist. In the film’s most powerful scene, we watch al-Awlaki’s father and daughter watching home movies of his teenage son, who was also dispatched via drone, or as Sachill says: “Killed not for what he had done but for what one day he might become”.

DIRTY WARS asserts that there can be no victory in such a war but no counterargument is offered. The motivations of the folks in charge of the JSOC are never questioned. Rowley and Scahill just expose the JSOC’s presence, assuming it reflects negatively on U.S. Military policy while failing to offer any answers of their own. The filmmaker is clearly seeking outrage but DIRTY WARS failed to make this a subject to get worked up about. Even if all of Scahill’s allegations are fact, it’s mildly alarming at best and nothing I’m gonna lose sleep over. Scahill is the author of a new book on this subject also titled Dirty Wars. Its 680 pages so he clearly has a lot to say on this topic. I won’t be reading it but I may purchase the film’s excellent score by the Kronos Quartet.

3 of 5 Stars

DIRTY WARS opens in St. Louis today at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater