Director: Richard Rowley.
Starring: Jeremy Scahill.
Running Time: 87 minutes.
Certificate: 15.
Synopsis: Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill is pulled into an unexpected journey as he chases down the hidden truth behind America’s expanding covert wars.
DIRTY WARS is in many ways a tricky film. First of all, the war on terror and the downward slope that the US government is portrayed as being on is an extremely important subject. The question of how far you are allowed to go in order to protect your country from perceived threats will always be an important question to ask. But on the other hand, upon viewing this film you cannot help feel like you have not really gained anything new or substantially different from watching it. This could largely be due to the vast amount of films, TV shows, books, newspaper articles etc – both fictional and factual – that have been permeating the world ever since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan commenced a decade ago. You could argue that this is not really the film’s fault, but this is the harsh reality surrounding documentary filmmaking; if you do not produce a film with a fresh spin on the subject, your film will ultimately suffer for it.
It is not just the subject matter that bogs the film down, but also the way it is presented. Jeremy Scahill narrates the film, which in itself seems natural enough considering the fact that it is his journey after all, but he often comes across as pretentious, reckless and self-promoting when he describes his actions. This is especially cloying in the beginning of the film when he goes outside of the green zone despite everyone’s advice because of his ‘need to find the truth’. It unintentionally draws focus too much onto the journalist which in turn detracts from the end product.
The film is also not helped by the fact that it does not have a truly coherent narrative. This is, again, understandable to an extent considering the subject matter of a confusing mess of a war. But the further the film goes on, the less it seems like Scahill and director Richard Rowley know exactly what they are trying to say. We go from investigating a secret US special ops branch over a small portrait of the targeted US citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki to the funding of mercenaries in Central Africa. It creates a picture of the misguided tactics that the US government use but at the same time it seems so scattershot that you unwittingly disengage from the film. On top of all this, the interviews used in the film are very hit and miss, and none really seem to substantiate or contradict the story significantly. There is also a troubling instance where three people are shown as having been interviewed with their opinions being brought forth without any actual interview being screened. You cannot help but question the film’s honesty in that case, and even if that is completely unintended, it is lazy filmmaking.
So is the film all bad? No, not at all. The pictures are striking and at times hard to look at. The film has a very assured style, which for better or worse makes it stand out from a lot of other documentaries, and the subject matter is hugely significant as a portrait of the world we live in now. The victims portrayed in the film need to get their stories told, but unfortunately their message is lost somewhere along the line.
DIRTY WARS is released in UK cinemas on Friday 29th November.
