Dirty Wars 2013

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Pessimistic, grimly outraged and utterly riveting ... Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: By emphasizing the human cost of the operation, Scahill and Rowling turn "blowback" into much more than an abstract military-political term. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, AV Club: As a polemic, Dirty Wars is provocative and productively depressing ... Read more

Mark Feeney, Boston Globe: Scahill's so busy Being A Reporter - capital letters are definitely called for - it gets in the way of what he's reporting on. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The flood of theatrical documentaries about the War on Terror... has slowed to a trickle since President Obama took office, which makes this uncompromising expose from reporter Jeremy Scahill even more important. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: An expose of practices that need -- demand -- exposing. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It makes you wonder - what don't we know? Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: As a connect-the-dots narrative, "Dirty Wars" is eye-opening, a fierce argument that there are chilling ramifications to endless, vague aggression. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: Scahill is right to focus on the price American security efforts have cost in human rights - and human life. Yet there are difficult questions hovering just outside the frame of Dirty Wars. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: The film will undoubtedly play well with those who already despise the covert killings, but it does a disservice to the wavering. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: Dirty Wars is essential viewing for all Americans, conservatives and liberals alike. It's intense and depressing. It'll make you angry. Read more

Steven Boone, Chicago Sun-Times: "Dirty Wars" becomes hard to swat away, no matter how much its style conveys a sense of unconscious insecurity about its assertions. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: These wars being fought in our name may be dirty, but this courageous film reminds us that as long as we have a free press, they don't have to be secret. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: A remarkable documentary as important as it is compelling ... Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Scahill is as much a liability onscreen as he is a fascinating source. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: For every shot of an Afghani citizen talking tearfully about the death of a loved one, there's almost always an equally long shot of Jeremy Scahill listening, Jeremy Scahill taking notes, Jeremy Scahill furrowing his brow. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: [A] gripping investigative doc, which plays out like a classic conspiracy thriller as it follows a trail of clues to the heart of darkness. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Dirty Wars leaves some deeper questions unexplored, mainly the philosophical struggle between security and secrecy, but makes up grandly with raw data and one correspondent's passion. Read more

Rob Nelson, Variety: [The] astonishingly hard-hitting "Dirty Wars" renders the investigative work of journalist Jeremy Scahill in the form of a '70s-style conspiracy thriller. Read more

Ernest Hardy, Village Voice: Dirty Wars is essential viewing for anyone who wants to know how we wage war right now; it's also a chilling prologue for what's likely a global future of endless war and blowback. Read more

Anthony Kaufman, Village Voice: Gritty and gripping, playing out like a paranoid geopolitical thriller ... Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's shocking stuff, even if much of it has already been in the news. That's mostly because of the way that Scahill strings it together into a coherent, convincing argument. Read more