The Invisible War is a 2012 American documentary film written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering and Tanner King Barklow about sexual assault in the United States military.

[7] The Invisible War features interviews with veterans from multiple branches of the United States Armed Forces who recount the events surrounding their assaults.

Interspersed with these first person testimonies are interviews with advocates, journalists, mental health professionals, active duty and retired generals, Department of Defense officials, and members of the military justice system.

[14] In his 2014 memoir Worthy Fights, Panetta states that watching The Invisible War was one of the main factors that influenced him to take action on the issue of sexual assault in the military.

[16][17] In November 2012 Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh met with all active wing commanders to screen the film and discuss the problem of rape in the military.

"[20] The Times also notes that the film helped spur the House Armed Services Committee to hold a January 23, 2013, hearing on sexual assault in the military.

In her 2014 memoir Off the Sidelines, Gillibrand writes, "Nothing in my life...prepared me for what I saw in that film.... Whatever it took, I had to help bring justice to these survivors, and I needed to work to prevent future crimes.

The website's critical consensus states, "The Invisible War is a vital and frank expose on sexual assault in the U.S. military, shot by master filmmaker Kirby Dick (This Film is Not Yet Rated)".

[33] The Christian Science Monitor's Peter Rainer observed that the film broke new ground, as it "was the first to really explore the issue of rape in the military" and that "the fact that this subject has taken so long to achieve full-scale exposure was itself symptomatic of the problem."

[34][35] The Boston Globe's Christopher Wallenberg noted that The Invisible War "achieved a rare feat for a documentary by breaking a national news story: The alleged coverup of incidents of sexual assault and harassment at the prestigious Marine Barracks Washington."

Other critics also focused on the film's investigative journalism,[36][37] including A. O. Scott, who wrote in The New York Times that Dick is "one of the indispensable muckrakers of American cinema, zeroing in on frequently painful stories about how power functions in the absence or failure of accountability.