Dirty Wars (2013)

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill is pulled into an unexpected journey as he chases down the hidden truth behind America's expanding covert wars.

Director:

Rick Rowley

Writers:

David Riker, Jeremy Scahill

Stars:

Jeremy Scahill, Nasser Al Aulaqi, Saleha Al Aulaqi

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 10 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Nasser Al Aulaqi	...	Himself - Interviewee
Saleha Al Aulaqi	...	Herself - Interviewee
Muqbal Al Kazemi	...	Himself - Interviewee
Abdul Rahman Barman	...	Himself - Interviewee
Saleh Bin Fareed	...	Himself - Interviewee (as Sheikh Saleh Bin Fareed)
Andrew Exum	...	Himself - Interviewee
Abdul Ghafoor	...	Himself - Interviewee
Philip Giraldi	...	Himself - Interviewee
Matthew Hoh	...	Himself - Interviewee
Patrick Lang	...	Himself - Interviewee
John McCain	...	Himself (archive footage)
William McRaven	...	Himself (archive footage)
Emile Nakhleh	...	Himself - Interviewee
Malcolm Nance	...	Himself - Interviewee
Barack Obama	...	Himself (archive footage)

Storyline

Dirty Wars follows investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, author of the international bestseller Blackwater, into the hidden world of America's covert wars, from Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia, and beyond. Part action film and part detective story, Dirty Wars is a gripping journey into one of the most important and underreported stories of our time. What begins as a report on a deadly U.S. night raid in a remote corner of Afghanistan quickly turns into a global investigation of the secretive and powerful Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). As Scahill digs deeper into the activities of JSOC, he is pulled into a world of covert operations unknown to the public and carried out across the globe by men who do not exist on paper and will never appear before Congress. In military jargon, JSOC teams "find, fix, and finish" their targets, who are selected through a secret process. No target is off limits for the "kill list," including U.S. citizens.

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Plot Keywords:

cell phone video | cell phone | afghanistan | investigative reporter | covert operation | 

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Taglines:

A secret army. A war without end. A journalist determined to uncover the truth.

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Genres:

Documentary | Crime | Drama | Mystery | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Pushto Somali Dari Arabic

Release Date:

18 October 2013 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Brudne wojny

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$63,504, 9 June 2013, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$384,473

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$416,853

Company Credits

Production Co:

Big Noise Films,Civic Bakery

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

The clock on the wall of the home video was earlier during the party, NOT at the moment the house was attacked.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jeremy Scahill: Kabul, Afghanistan, four in the morning. As an American jounalist I was used to finding stories in the middle of the night. But there is always something eerie, driving through the deserted streets. A city of three million, barely a streetlight on. There was a familiar routine, waiting for the crew to light up the next set so that you could see something in the background. But what could we really see?

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Connections

Referenced in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #21.162 (2013)

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Soundtracks

Tashweesh (Interference)
Ramallah Underground
Performed by Kronos Quartet
Courtesy of Nonesuch Records Inc.

User Reviews

The Dirty Side of America's Military

Add "Dirty Wars" to the list of movies that make me depressed to be an American.

Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill plunges into the shadowy world of American strategic ops initiatives around the world, and the results, while not exactly surprising, are certainly chilling. What he finds are instances of American forces randomly going into obscure parts of the world and carrying out attacks that are as likely to kill innocent women and children as they are any people actively trying to do America any harm. At the center of these operations is a mysterious military unit about which virtually nothing used to be known, until this same unit carried out the assassination of Osama Bin Laden and elevated itself to hero status in the eyes of the American people.

Movies like "Dirty Wars" seem like a necessary evil to me. They bring to light topics that need to be addressed, but at the same time leave me impotently frustrated at my inability to do anything about it.

Grade: A-