76
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerChristian Science MonitorPeter RainerI wish Rowley didn’t so often dabble in standard movie-thriller-style stylistics, but his film is an exposé of practices that need – demand – exposing.
- 90The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen Holden[A] pessimistic, grimly outraged and utterly riveting documentary.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeA vital, gripping film.
- 80Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfDirty 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.
- 80Village VoiceErnest HardyVillage VoiceErnest HardyDirty 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.
- 75Slant MagazineTomas HachardSlant MagazineTomas HachardAbly leads us through its extensive investigation, faltering only when the camera lingers on Jeremy Scahill for a touch too long at the expense of his interview subjects.
- 70VarietyRob NelsonVarietyRob NelsonIt takes pains to make the political personal, forging the viewer’s identification with Scahill by making persistent use of his voiceover narration and keeping him oncamera throughout.
- 70Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleThe ambitions toward '70s-era paranoia thrillers aside, as a connect-the-dots narrative, Dirty Wars is eye-opening, a fierce argument that there are chilling ramifications to endless, vague aggression.
- 67The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergThe A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergAs a polemic, Dirty Wars is provocative and productively depressing, raising doubts about the effectiveness of military missions that have the potential to create ideological enemies, as well as the degree to which elected officials can—or are willing to—place checks on secret ops. (Obama gets no more points than Bush in any of the matters discussed.)
- 65NPRElla TaylorNPRElla TaylorScahill 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. Short of pacifism, and given that there is no such thing as a truly clean war, what would count as an "acceptable" level of collateral damage?