Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill is pulled into an unexpected journey as he chases down the hidden truth behind America's expanding covert wars.
Not great cinema by any stretch, but amply informative and thought-provoking.
Though awkwardly assembled, with an overemphatic voiceover, it’s chilling stuff.
Dirty Wars doesn't pretend to be balanced or neutral. Its position is one of anger and disbelief at the extra-judicial assassinations of men, women and children, some of them American citizens, who can't be defined as terrorists at all.
Should be more shocking than it is.
The movie has rather silly, Bourne-style thriller graphics, which are unnecessary: it has an important story to tell.
Jeremy Scahill reports on the war on terror in a documentary that is fascinating about the United States’ use of targeted assassinations and drone strikes, but less compelling whenever it tries to make Scahill its focus instead of its narrator.
It’s scary stuff, and though director Richard Rowley sometimes milks the thriller overtones too forcefully, Scahill explores the subject with admirable clarity.
Cameo, Edinburgh on Monday December 2, 2013. More info: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/