Journalistic movies inherently imbue a sense of importance, and so it’s sometimes hard to determine whether you’re simply being swept up by the content of the investigative reporting, or appreciating the documentary as first and foremost a movie—or whether this is even a distinction worth making. Dirty Wars is an example of a movie that follows a journalist—here it’s Jeremy Scahill, as he investigates America’s involvement in a number of Southwest Asian countries.
The documentary itself is based on, or rather coincides with, Scahill’s reporting released in his book by the same, in the same year. So people can choose the medium that suits them best. For me, seeing Scahill on the ground, interviewing Afghani subjects and military operatives in the region is more engaging than reading transcripts of their conversations. The big revelation of Scahill’s reporting is the role of JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, in the targeted killings of alleged terrorists (as well as collateral casualties) abroad. Scahill has developed a reputation for being an uncompromising foreign affairs journalist, and Dirty Wars allows him to bring information to us directly, troubling as it may be.
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