For sheer infuriation value, you can’t do much better than Kirby Dick’s quietly scathing documentary on rape in the US military. It’s a chronic but shockingly underreported problem, illustrated with extended interviews and cold, hard numbers: Since 2006, more than 95,000 servicewomen and men have been sexually assaulted — and next to none of their rapists has seen jail time or, in many cases, even a demotion.
From a brutalized female soldier chastised for “crying over spilled milk,” to the Ohio Coast Guard veteran still fighting the VA office for treatment of her shattered jaw five years later, Dick chronicles the myriad ways sexual-assault victims are routinely punished and ignored.
“Rape is an occupational hazard” of being in the military, says a recent ruling against a class-action lawsuit. If they’d known what serving your country entails, say these survivors, they’d never have enlisted.