The Invisible War Rhetorical Analysis

In Kirby Dick’s influential documentary “The Invisible War,” filmmaker Kirby Dick uses pathos, ethos and logos to gain information and supplementary details to make his point that there is an epidemic of rape in throughout the DOD (Department of Defense) and the fact that military sexual trauma (MST) in the United States military goes unheard, mostly unpunished and needs to be addressed at a higher level.

In order to have a complete argument, one needs to first be a credible source, be able to show equality on both sides and also be fair to the other side’s argument. This rhetoric appeal is known as ethos, a method of persuasion, a way to convince the audience and make their argument relevant.

To begin with Kirby is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker that has won 29 awards in the documentary field. He received Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary Feature as well as numerous awards from several film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival. This film “The Invisible War” itself received or was nominated for 21 awards.

This allows the audience to conclude that the director does an exceptional job of researching facts and provides validity to the film.
Looking past the number of awards from the director and film, Kirby utilizes ethos in the film by providing statistics. Over 20% of all female military members have been assaulted while serving which leads to the overall number of half a million if you don’t count the cases of unreported cases. This statistic alone shows the astoundingly large percentage of assaults and makes the audience feel surprised and made to ask themselves what is the logic behind the tolerance of sexual assault in the military. By having the audience feel shocked and helpless, he is able to sway them to ask why there is not a better system in place for these military members. They might ask themselves what is the logic behind not punishing these offenders?
Throughout the documentary, there is a reoccurring theme that men are never punished for these assaults. Most of the time the commanding officers do not even request an investigation but simply slip it under the rug and don’t acknowledge that the assault happened. In one example, an airman was named airman of the year all while his trial was taking place. From this stance of ethos, the audience feels angry because these men are not getting punished for these horrendous crimes.

The “Invisible War” relies heavily on the rhetoric pathos; or the ability to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions, whether sad, happy, angry or frustrated. This film's ability to engage the audience’s emotions is by far the most powerful and persuasive component in this film. This appeal allows the viewers to identify with Kirby’s view that sexual assaults run rampant across the DOD with no recourse to the offenders all while taking an emotional toll on the survivors and their families.
Kori Cioca of the United States Coast guard is interviewed at the beginning of the documentary. She suffered from a dislocated disk in her face as well as a dislocated jaw resulting from her sexual assault. She goes into detail of how her petty officer forced her into his berthing and brutally raped her several times. Because of this assault Cioca has been prescribed an obscene amount of medicine from the (VA) Veterans Affairs. In one scene she shows the camera crew about 75 different medications that were prescribed to her and told them that “mixing these medicines as instructed will kill me, people have died from this and they keep sending it to me”. Her assault and the damages from the assault has left her on an emotional roller coaster. Cioca wakes up screaming at night, as shown by home video given to the film crew by her husband. He speaks into the camera that it is 2 am and said that his wife woke up from nightmares. The camera pans to the darkness of their front yard and captures Cioca playing with her daughter in the leaves. Her screams woke up their daughter and instead of going back to sleep Cioca decides to play outside. This appeals to the audience by feeling a tremendous sadness and empathy towards Cioca and her family.
Another example of how the filmmaker utilizes pathos in his documentary is by interviewing the active duty husband of a Lieutenant that was stationed at Washington Barracks (the most prestige post among the United States Marine Corps). This lieutenant was raped and when reported told to get over it. He tells of nights that he comes home hoping that he won’t find her gone and a suicide letter left behind. The most emotional part of his interview is when he is describing that he is made to call 911 in his left hand and holding her down so she won’t hurt herself in his right arm. Throughout these interviews, the audience feels upset and sympathetic towards the victims, allowing them to agree with Kirby that there is an unfathomable number of mental disorders that come directly from being assaulted while serving in the military.
Doing an exceptional job with the first two appeals to rhetoric, Kirby does not forget to utilize logos in the film. Kirby weaves logos or logic (the ability to persuade by reasoning, by employing logic) throughout the film by combining interviews from both sides as well as facts and statistics from national reports.
The DOD employs Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Officers (SAPRO) in order to establish a program that’s mission is to research and prevent these assaults. Their idea to prevent military members from raping each other range from commercials to foolish ideas of the “buddy system”. The buddy system allows blame to be put on the victim because they ventured to a bar, or to their car at night without someone else to walk with them. When victims come forward with their rapes they are automatically ask why they didn’t have a buddy and that they should now better. In an attempt from Kirby to show the audience that the SAPRO program is unreliable and not taken seriously he includes an interview from the head of the SAPRO program. When ask to summarize the profile of offenders and a number of times they have assaulted others in the military, she answers that the military doesn’t collect data on that. Kirby creates a background that allows the audience to ask themselves important questions. Is that not the point of the program that was integrated for the very issue of sexual assaults? Is that not the reason they are getting paid to collect data? What data are they collecting? Why is this program even allowed if it is only causing damage to the process?
In “The Invisible War” does something very commendable, it gets people talking and questioning.

From the mothers and fathers of the daughters and sons in the military to the friends that are left back home when someone enlists and prepares on their journey, this film provides a starting point to influence conversation’s about the sexual violence and injustice prevalent across the DOD. The film speaks out to the audience’s emotions by delivering jaw-dropping statistics all while providing a strong ethical basis of trustworthy resources, interviews, and statistics. This documentary is a great example of how using pathos, ethos and logos to implore an audience to question how the DOD reacts to MST. By combining all these rhetoric appeals, Kirby is able to convince the audience that there is sexual misconduct in the military and there is no evidence to prove that they are doing anything about

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