Restrepo (2010) User Reviews

Stop and Think About It

[bobt145 · 8/10 · 6 January 2011]

It's a strange way to fight, without ever seeing the people you're shooting at and who are shooting at you.

The strongest aspect about this viewpoint documentary is its lack of an opinionated narration. The filmmakers--who deserve commendations of their own for putting themselves in the line of fire for 15 months--let the soldiers and their activities tell the story, the firefights, patrols, attempts to communicate with the Afghans, mundane chores.

And they let the viewer judge for meaning.

It isn't possible, however, to truly capture a year and three months in 90 minutes. I did find it curious that so much interview footage was cut. If you see it on DVD, don't miss the interviews shown under special features. Perhaps the director-cameramen wanted to keep the ratio heavier on footage than interviews.

In one omitted interview, the unit Captain admits that he thought he was responsible for losing even one soldier. He also mentions that one of those killed was the unit Sergeant Major's son. There should have been some way to weave this into the story.

Another soldier says he hates the terms "you did what you had to do" because he doesn't think he really had to do it. Says he doesn't think God will greet him with a playful punch to the shoulder and say "you did what you had to do." It's powerful stuff, the included and the omitted footage. For the most part we fight now with volunteers. The mix of soldiers is a bit different than it was when there was a draft, but "Restrepo" shows that American forces still bring a wide range of backgrounds and reactions.

And it shows that most are still so young that we are still sending kids to do the jobs old men ask them to do. They are brave, fearful, obscene, committed for the wrong reasons, committed for right reasons, and committed for no reason at all.

It's a powerful view.

A closeup of US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan

[Chris Knipp · 8/10 · 5 May 2010]

'One platoon, one year, one valley' goes this documentary's impressive slogan. Such concentrated focus is truly a selling point. This is vivid, intense, unvarnished stuff, and the two filmmakers won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary at Sundance this year for their troubles. Hetherington also won World Press Photo of the Year 2007 for an image of one of the soldiers resting at Restrepo, an outpost named after medic Juan Restrepo, one of their first casualties upon arriving at this dangerous place of daily combat, Afghanistan's Korangal Valley. The two embedded journalists, Sebastian Junger (of 'The Perfect Storm,' with a contract from Vanity Fair for coverage) and distinguished British war photographer Tim Hetherington, are both filming the platoon off and on all through its 15-month deployment. They don't analyze or look at a wider context. They're in effect in the foxholes, where there are no atheists, and this time no military strategists either. What they show, and show well, is the camaraderie of this American Army unit, the Second Platoon, Battle Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade, their bravery, hard work, humor, and love of one another, and, less emphatic but also constant, a deteriorating relationship with the local citizenry. If you are going to make a narrative feature about how contemporary American soldiers in daily combat look and act, this is a good place to go, and the images are superb, and bravely shot, at the cost of physical injury and at the risk of getting shot like the soldiers. The film has no structure other than the actions of the platoon, their two big projects being building OP Restrepo, a 15-man outpost above the outpost that restricted the enemy's movements, and a foray dubbed Operation Rock Avalanche, during which the troops came under the heaviest fire; some of them still have nightmares from Avalanche.

The Korangal Valley is a scene in the middle of nowhere with no escape, as the soldiers saw it on arrival -- a place of multiple daily engagements with a hidden enemy. Strategically, this place seems like it was useless. The Korangal Outpost was closed in 2009 after six years, hundreds of US wounded, and 50 US soldiers dead (and heavier losses on the less well-equipped Afghan side). Some US military actually think the Korangal Outpost -- and the outpost of the outpost, O.P. Restrepo where most of the action takes place -- only increased local sympathy for the Taliban.

This is one "context" thing we get a glimpse of, because the film shows moments from a few of the weekly "shuras" when the platoon leader, Captain Keaney, met with local "elders," scrawny men of indeterminate age, often with brightly hennaed beards. He swears at them freely (safe, since they don't know English) and replies unceremoniously to their complaints. He's a combat officer, not a negotiator. At one point one of the locals' cows gets caught up in concertina wire (we do not see this) and the troops have to kill it (and eat it, from what we hear, and a very tasty meal it was). Elders come specially to complain about this, and demand a payment for the lost animal of four or five hundred dollars. Permission is refused for this from higher command and the elders leave with only the promise of rice and grain matching the weight of the cow. It looks as if the Afghans lose face in these "shuras," but the Americans don't gain anything.

Of course there is the inevitable clash when the Americans push so close they kill some Afghan civilians and wound some children. As with all wars against partisans or insurgents, the locals are all implicated. Captain Keaney is chagrined. But the captain -- he and a handful of the soldiers are shown interviewed later throughout the film, commenting on the experience and the platoon's major projects during the deployment -- is proud of the job they did, nonetheless. They gave the enemy a harder time than their predecessors. OP Restrepo, their initiative, gave them a strategic advantage in the valley. And the men were brave, even when they were scared, and they' were kind and loyal to each other.

'Restrepo' illustrates the Chris Hedges line that opens Kathryn Bigelow's similarly intense, visceral, but unanalytical fiction film, 'The Hurt Locker,' "The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug." Soldiers are shown hooting with excitement and saying that being fired upon is "better than crack," and they don't know if they can go back to civilian life after living day to day with such an adrenalin rush as the Konragal Valley and Operation Rock Avalance gave them.

The festival enthusiasm is not the end of it because 'Restrepo' will be broadcast globally by National Geographic. But, reviewing the film at Sundance, Variety reviewer John Anderson argues, with some reason, that this documentary "needs a story, much like the war. The roaring lack of public interest in what the U.S. is doing in Afghanistan is largely due to a failure of storytelling: Tell us what it's about, and then we'll care." Will we? What the story of the US in Afghanistan looks like is being stuck in one place, fighting a pointless war, on varying pretexts, in impossible conditions, like Vietnam. Here we don't see the drugs and demoralization of Vietnam, though they may be there. The interviews give only a glimpse or two of the damage this deployment did on the 29 or so men -- as well as of what a very fine bunch of men they are. Michael Levine, the film's editor, who cut Venditti's great little doc 'Billy the Kid,' deserves much credit for bringing some order to a wealth of chaotic material.

Seen at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Shooting Hell

[proterozoic · 10/10 · 19 March 2011]

How does a soft, liberal-arts civilian like me even approach a document like "Restrepo"? I don't give myself to blind, reflexive worship of the military; before, I have reviewed "Taxi to the Dark Side," an investigation into some chilling crimes committed by individuals in the armed forces, almost surely with the knowledge and approval of their superiors. This, however, is a film, shot by two insane journalists who spent a year with American Army troops in Afghanistan's Korangal valley, and it portrays men who are different from the rest of us in that they have faced and survived the impossible.

Outpost Restrepo was named after a beloved comrade killed in action, and it was dug and fortified under constant enemy gunfire. The Taliban just hated giving up the position, and the men describe how they would dig for several minutes, then be forced to pick up their weapons and return fire, and after the gunfight died down, go right back to digging. The outpost is only several hundred meters from a larger base, but in case of an attack, support might as well be stationed in Germany.

The all-seeing documentarians capture the men's brutal physical labor under a constant state of siege and barely-adequate resupply, until violence and discomfort become life's permanent background. The soldiers are forced to go on regular patrols through the countryside, tracking the progress of development projects and trying to build trust among the locals, whose allegiances are never clear. If they are only listening with one ear, if they're only out to hedge their bets between the fighting sides, who can blame them?

The film culminates in an account of a firefight during an offensive called "Rock Avalanche" – words that the testifying soldiers cannot say without a shudder. The mission consists of the men being loudly airdropped on a hilltop and moving around valleys and mountains until attacked by the Taliban. They push onwards, trying not to think which step will finally trigger the inevitable ambush. The ambush occurs; the live footage cuts out, and for several minutes, we follow the brutal firefight only through the soldiers' testimony. It is gut-wrenching. The pain and terror of the men who return fire without knowing which of their fellows are still alive and if they themselves will live for another minute are suffocating. Then, the footage is back, and we see a private wailing like a child over the dead body of the unit's favorite commander. If this can happen to the best among us, he says, what chance do the rest of us have?

It is an astonishing thing to contemplate, but even at the end of so much hostile fire, the Americans have the better deal. The young men who passed through the trials are scarred and damaged by their experience, but they knew the date when it would end, and the bird was there to take the survivors back to a better life. The local Afghans' pain has no end. Frightened, grimy faces peer out of gashes in dirt walls. Children hide their eyes, dressed in scraps of their grandparents' clothes. The doorways of their mud shacks open into black pits – even in midday, the sun is unable to dispel the darkness. The village elders are a sight from another millennium – gnarly, weather-beaten, half-decayed faces that seem to have been chopped out of rotting tree trunks. You could easily give every one of them a couple of centuries, but who knows? They may still be in their thirties. I've had some rough years as a child of the third world, but I can't imagine even a tenth of what these people go through in their lives.

So many excellent films have come out of our latest painful conflicts – "Restrepo," "Generation Kill," "Taxi to the Dark Side," "Gunner Palace"… Almost all of them have been financial failures. Who wants to spend ten dollars to get depressed and emotionally drained? What exactly are we supposed to feel at the end of "Restrepo"? Not hope. Maybe futility, weariness and an incredible desire to think about something else.

I wondered if the place I saw in "Restrepo" really exists on the same planet as the Metropolitan Opera. Will its misery ever end?

A heart-wrenching documentary

[KnightsofNi11 · 9/10 · 18 February 2011]

This is where documentary filmmaking becomes serious. Whatever you are expecting out of this film, chances are you will get a whole lot more. Restrepo follows a platoon of soldiers in Afghanistan who are defending a valley, Korgengal. It is said to be one of the most dangerous valleys in the entire country and these brave men take fire every single day of their brutal campaign. This is a riveting film and it is one of those that you cannot shake. It gives you a glance into the absolute darkest depths of modern warfare and just how demanding the fighting is both physically and mentally. It is a film that gives you a rare look into the horrors of war. And it is absolutely astounding.

Restrepo is shot at a very personal level. The camera never intrudes on the soldiers during their work, and thank God considering some of the harrowing things they go through in this movie. This film hardly even feels like a documentary in the sense of what we think of documentary today. It is filled with interviews, but the bulk of the movie is truly documenting the lives of these soldiers. We get to see all sides of the emotional spectrum that can be afflicted through trauma. We get to look at how different people cope with such horrors as are experienced in this film. And it is all through such respectful eyes. I never once thought, 'Wow, they should really stop filming this.' Every moment of the film feels so important and the fact that all this was so clearly and eloquently caught on camera is astounding.

The unequivocally greatest thing about this film is the fact that it has absolutely no political agenda. It really has no alternative motive other than telling the story of these incredibly brave soldiers. The film only seeks to honor the brave men who served our country in the most dangerous area imaginable. This film isn't for the political leaders responsible for the war. It isn't for the military commanders that send these soldiers into battle. This movie is for the soldiers themselves. It is a true soldier's film in every sense. It has a very stern focus on the individual. It makes such an important point out of this aspect that it could have possibly gone even further. There are a lot of men in this platoon and thus we don't get to know any one person particularly well. We get to know the platoon well as a whole and how each man interacts with his fellow soldiers and how they all deal with loss and tragedy. Each individual soldier in this movie is important and the movie strives to show how meaningful that is. It is a remarkably important aspect of the film.

You won't see many documentaries like this, and there's probably a good reason for this. The kind of footage captured in Restrepo isn't easy to get and you have to be just as brave as the soldiers themselves if you are to accompany them into battle to document their bravery. But thankfully when the opportunity to get such unforgettable footage arose, it was all put together extremely well. This is not an easy film to watch, but in the end it is so remarkably worth it.

Objectivity

[JohnDeSando · 19 August 2010]

"The horror! The horror! " Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

CNN describes Afghanistan's Korangal Valley as "the most dangerous place in the world." After seeing the powerful documentary Restrepo, I can understand the description, and I can admire an almost new dimension to that type of film: objectivity.

An American company of soldiers spent 15 months in that valley with filmmakers Tom Hetherington and Sebastian Junger recording the soldiers' combat and more importantly their personal reactions. For indeed Restrepo is about soldiers fighting an enemy they can't see, a boredom they can't leave behind, and friendships they will keep forever, depending on how long forever can be in such a hostile environment.

The singular feature of this Oscar-winning film is its attempt to make no judgment about the appropriateness of the war; it just chronicles the lives of young men stretched by fate to an endurance few of us could even imagine. Not that it's all that bloody or manic; it's just that the terror of an enemy hidden by mountains hangs about like a fog to such an extent that when they do kill one far away in the foothills, they rejoice as if they had wiped out a platoon. When the tired soldiers dance to "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)" by Gunther and Samantha Fox, they celebrate life, not killing.

Back to that objectivity: Even a documentary marries fiction when directors choose some images over others. In Restrepo the choices lead me to question how the US could ever win this war, not because that's the directors' statement but because the successes are limited to building a stronghold, Restrepo (named after a fallen comrade), at the top of a mountain among mountains that dare the most powerful army in history to try to win this one when none has ever been won here. Indeed, the army has subsequently withdrawn.

While the fictional Hurt Locker minimized its bloodshed in favor of the representational, Restrepo takes no liberties but goes for the real, which in this case is like waiting around a movie set for something to happen. And when it does, it can win an Academy Award.

Succinct Sixteen

[unclesamsavage · 7/10 · 22 August 2021]

Aggravating to uncover combat leadership's outlook and their relations with locals but enlightening all the same.

Screenplay...................................... 7 / 10 Interviews........................................ 9 Visuals................................................ 10 Sound................................................... 6 Editing................................................ 6 Timeless Utility................................. 7 Total.................................................... 45 / 60 = 7.5 (which I rounded to 7) Verdict................................................. Informative / Recommended watch.

Restrepo !!!

[estebangonzalez10 · 9/10 · 19 February 2011]

¨My personal low point? - Rock Avalanche, I saw a lot of professional tough guys go weak in the knees.¨ Restrepo is one of the five pictures nominated for Best Documentary at the Oscars and it also won the Grand Jury Prize in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It's beautifully directed and filmed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger (writer of The Perfect Storm). The huge success of this film and what separates it from the hundreds of other war pictures is that Junger puts us right in the middle of the action without any political agenda. He simply decides to film these groups of soldiers who have been deployed to one of the most dangerous locations in Afghanistan and lets us experience their day to day lives without making any pro or anti war comments. We are allowed to see a small glimpse of what the American soldiers have to go through and how they live amongst the villagers. In a way Junger allows the soldiers being filmed to tell their own story. We experience what they are going through in this dangerous war zone and how they interact with the local people. The cinematography is actually quite astonishing and I really felt like I was there with the soldiers. Restrepo made me appreciate even more last year's Oscar winning picture: The Hurt Locker, because it showed me how real that film actually was. At one point one of the soldiers even claims that no rush is as high as being shot at in the middle of a war zone. War can be addictive and it actually is for some soldiers.

The camera silently follows an American platoon that is being deployed to one of the most dangerous war zones in Afghanistan known as the Korangal Valley for a period of 15 months during 2007. The film begins while the platoon is arriving at the base and some of the soldiers share their thoughts about beginning their service in such a dangerous zone. We follow these soldiers as they live in tents in the middle of a valley where danger is eminent. They have to experience gun fights almost every day, and at the same time they have to adapt to the environment. When they are not fighting, we see the soldiers digging for protection; we see them burning their own feces, and just goofing around while they wait for next gunfight to take place. A day without action is nonexistent in the Korangal Valley. It is during one of these gunfights that one of the soldiers is mortally wounded, his name was Restrepo and the rest of the soldiers decide to build a resistance camp named O.P. Restrepo on his behalf. Restrepo changed the entire mood of the soldiers and they were ready to have their revenge. At the same time that the soldiers have to fight off the Taliban they also try to improve their relations with the locals who have a difficult time accepting the Americans (especially after they kill one of their cows).

The movie isn't pro or anti war; it simply places the camera in the middle of the action and lets us experience what is going on. No one's opinion about War is going to change: those who favor Americans involvement in Afghanistan will still do so after watching this documentary and those who don't will still feel the same because the directors don't try to manipulate us into thinking the way they do. There aren't any personal opinions about politics or war; it's all about experiencing what these soldiers have to go through every day whether or not they actually understand what they are fighting for. Some of my favorite parts of the documentary were the scenes where the Captain meets with the local villagers and tries to make allies out of them and the Rock Avalanche operation. The Captain really doesn't have a clue of the way the villagers think and goes the wrong way about trying to convince them to help the Americans. The Rock Avalanche Operation was really intense and was the climatic point of the film. I really loved the interviews with the soldiers with the camera closing-up on their faces (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly style). Restrepo is a really good and memorable documentary that will stay with you for days. It is only 90 minutes long so it is really worth your time.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/

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[JumneXI · 7/10 · 12 August 2022]

What's special about this film is that it's so real. No actors, or no special effects.

I mean I've watched many war movies, but none of them was %100 realistic as this one.

Grunt's Eye View of a Depressing War

[evanston_dad · 9/10 · 22 February 2011]

Filmmakers Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger take their cameras into the trenches for a "day in the life" look at what it's like to fight in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, nicknamed the most dangerous place on earth.

There, a platoon of battle-weary men fight the Taliban, an elusive spectre of an enemy that they rarely actually see. They seem to have little interest in what they're doing or why they're doing it; they only come alive immediately after a fire-fight (of which they have at least 3 or 4 a day), when the adrenaline of battle gives them a natural high. The rest of the time they spend going about their more mundane duties, feeling at all times like fish in a barrel.

Late into the film, one of their men is killed in a battle that pretty much all of them agree was one of their worst moments during the whole period. Other men had been killed, but this seems to be one of the first that the men actually see die before their eyes. It has a devastating effect -- they collapse into sobs and turn instantly from fighting men into small boys, and our hearts go out to them with compassion and the frustrated regret that they have to live like this while the rest of us go about our cushy existence.

"Restrepo" confirms what a lot of fictional accounts of the War on Terror (or whatever it is we're calling it now) have suggested: the feelings of determination and vengeance that got us into all of these messy military conflicts have long since given way to depressed resignation. No one is really sure what we're doing anymore, these soldiers least of all, and watching "Restrepo" didn't feel much different from watching a documentary about Vietnam.

Grade: A

Worth watching, very honest intense footage showing a soldier's view

[joshuapoldfield · 7/10 · 2 October 2019]

Worth watching, very honest intense footage showing a soldier's view

Shown with a non-judgemental eye on the realities.

There's An Element Of Having Seen It All Before

[Theo Robertson · 7/10 · 11 July 2013]

Named after a medic killed in a Taliban attack RESTREPO is a documentary featuring a tour of B Company of the 2nd Battlion of the American 503rd Infantry regiment in the Korangal Valley in Afghanistan in 2007 and documents the realities of life and death in a counter-insurgency conflict We've all heard of Afghanistan and we all have an opinion on it and this shows the earlier stages of the conflict . This is the problem with RESTREPO when it was released in 2010 in that it had a slightly seen it all before feel which is heavily compounded if like me you've seen it for the very first time in 2013 . Let me elaborate:

In 2006 Nato lost 193 troops in Afghanistan

2007 Nato lost 228 troops

2008 Nato lost 296 troops

2009 Nato lost 516 troops

2010 Nato lost 710 troops

All this makes very grim reading and a tragedy for the people involved . Afghanistan was the Mecca for journalists from all over the world to make a name for themselves for either decent honest motives or for rather more cynical motives . Either way the country and the combatants would be a daily feature on news and documentary channels and we've seen these type of documentaries before such as the BBC's few genuinely compelling documentaries of recent years OUR WAR . In effect - and I emphasise no disrespect to anyone - RESTREPO doesn't bring much new to the table and you're left with a feeling of having seen it all before

American propaganda movie

[schar_law · 1/10 · 6 December 2010]

I actually thought that this will be an objective movie about the war in Afganistan, but it turned out to be just another documentary that glorifies American stupid wars. In the end of the film there is a note that 50 American soldiers died in this valley - I wonder how many local people they killed while they were there. I bet a lot more. And, what is the most stupid is that after all this, they retreated from the valley so even their money driven goal was not achieved. I'm afraid that this will turn out to be the scenario for the whole war in Afganistan - politicians and big companies made a lot of money, a lot of innocent of people killed and all for "protecting the land of the free and fake democracy"!

Forward Outpost Restrepo

[ronan411-476-136854 · 27 September 2013]

I completely disagree with the above review. If the Junger and Hetherington want to make a documentary - they are perfectly entitled to make it the way they see fit, and if they chose not to become the immersed in politics of the conflict then so be it. If you want to see that kind of documentary - switch on the History Channel any night of the week. The viewer gets right into the action in 'Restrepo' with the soldiers and it has given many a young person second thoughts about joining the military. That in itself is praise enough for this awesome documentary on man's inhumanity to man. The action shots are superb and real - you do not want any of the soldiers to be hurt because you get to know them as the film progresses.

And I thought "The Hurt Locker" & "...Private Ryan" were intense.

[Deckard-16 · 10/10 · 8 December 2010]

After living (because "experiencing" is too weak a word here) this film for the last 2 & 1/2 hours (the DVD extras are equal to the feature) I will not be able to see another combat film for a very very long time.

What Sebastian Junger & Tim Hetherington have captured with this doc may be the final word about soldiers in combat & their thoughts afterword.

Afghanistan has been called a place "where dynasties go to die". The men shown here mostly don't give a flying f**k about history or politics. All they are concerned about is getting one day closer to the end of their 15 month deployment in the most dangerous on Earth AND the guys on either side of them.

This is most clear-eyed view of fighting I've seen since (the excellent) "Gunner Palace". Junger/Hetherington put their own asses on the line getting their footage & wisely kept completely out of their own picture. It drags at times because it shows that fighting is about burning their own human waste, building dirt barriers & killing time before the next kill --a kill they rarely see. The interviews interlaced among the field footage are as riveting as the fighting.

BUT make no mistake the fighting is as hellaciously intense as "Black Hawk Down" & "...Ryan". However J/H pull back from the gore. There are PG-13 movies which are more graphic in their violence. The real "graphic" parts of this film are the emotions in the faces & the eyes of the men. Sometimes it is difficult to figure out what comes first: the man inside or the soldier outside.

Buy the DVD. The extras are huge.

a courageous film that shows a war that is, like the Korangal Valley, a loop of grit and despair

[Quinoa1984 · 10/10 · 17 July 2010]

It's inarguable that we need to support up the soldiers in Afghanistan. It's the cliché in political speeches, but this film shows that this is more than just a saying when given a human face and context. Restrepo doesn't try and bluntly make the case that the conflict there that the US is engaged in is really worth it, or that we should leave immediately. The filmmakers let the soldiers speak for themselves, and the situation tells much more about what's really going on there. The ground troop that makes Restrepo- named after a much beloved fallen man that died suddenly during a small attack- which is a fort on a hill overlooking the valley, are all mostly kids who are in the army for one reason or another (one of them, who gives the most background, came from a hippie-family), and they are where they are and got to buck up with the situation for the months into the year it goes on till they are relieved.

We see some of the action, but if you're looking for the traditional war film please look elsewhere. This doesn't share the intensity of, say, last year's The Hurt Locker, but the film isn't on the same wavelength stylistically. Junger and Hetherington want these faces of the soldiers, and their experiences, to tell more than the visceral shocks that are shown on screen. Point in fact, there isn't a whole lot of action on screen, either because, logically, it would be difficult for the already in-grave-danger cameraman to get it on film (most of all that Rocky Mountain Ridge episode that everyone's haunted by), or that the US Army wouldn't allow it to be shown in the film. It's here, in having the lack of what we expect to see in a war film, that it gathers its strength and resonance.

The film Restrepo is engaging and absorbing as a collection of moments and scenes, detailing what everyday life was like there, and sometimes it could be just plain dull, or on the 'downlow' as it were. We see the dealings the army tries to make with the locals, who are either too scared of the Taliban (one gets the sense they're like a mafia with bigger guns) or don't want to help since, frankly, the US ends up killing a few civilians here and there, many of whom have never seen US troops before. Or, on the flipside, those that do want to deal with the soldiers after a cow is caught in the outlying fence on the perimeter and is killed, which is valuable property to the natives. And we also get to see how these guys, mostly kids in their early 20's or younger, having some relaxing time when not being fired at or firing back.

To be sure, some sequences are intense, such as the Rocky Mountain Ridge tale which has the soldiers being interviewed still unable to handle with the casualties and how they were surrounded by the Afghan forces. But what one walks away from this film, shot in the Korangal with straightforward, sobering shots of soldiers doing what they do, and with telling interviews shot much later when they were in Italy, is how they weathered the chaos and did accomplish something there with the fort (albeit later abandoned altogether in April 2010). It's extraordinary to see it so up close, and to put the human face on it. The audience, however they feel about the conflict currently (from the looks of things Obama's keeping soldiers there for longer stretches until "it" is "won"), get a fresh perspective and can walk away with their own conclusions. That, and those haunted faces of the soldiers themselves, who in profile have that stare in their eyes, sometimes more-so than others depending on when talking about what, and knowing that look may be there for the rest of their lives.

War Is Terrifying.

[DucDeRichleau · 10/10 · 13 September 2019]

Watching this is about as real as it can get.Well apart from the sheer terror of actually being there.Heart in mouth documentary about basically a lot of kids thrown into a mad,crazy and very scary situation. Knowing any second could be their last. Powerful stuff.Makes you realize how brave ANYONE who puts a uniform on and goes into a life or death battle situation really is. Fighting a (for the most part) unseen enemy in THEIR own backyard is a hard task. IF you didn't have respect for the armed forces you will have after watching this.

A Subtle Incrimination

[worldbarrow · 6/10 · 13 April 2014]

The filmmakers weren't determined to make an anti-War film, but what they reveal is the most pathetic aspects of today's armed forces: the boyish, obnoxious young men who go off to war like summer camp in an era when battles are won or lost behind the lines. The media reported the occasional combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan like soldiers never die at war, and the boy scout soldiers in Restrepo are ceremoniously devoted to that presumption, memorializing their fallen comrade in a sandbag fort that accomplishes nothing except a handful of deaths: soldiers, civilians, Taliban rebels— does it really matter? The enlisted soldiers seem youthful and sometimes innocent, like we might actually find their deaths to be unfortunate, while the sated, ratlike face of the West Point lieutenant in charge of the outpost shows just how irresponsible today's Army might actually be. "Do I look like I f***ing care?" the lieutenant ejaculates in response to concerns of Afghani villagers. Later, some innocent children die in a misguided air raid. The lieutenant reflects to the camera that it's hard, you know, we're supposed to be fighting them, but we're not fighting them— them, you know, the Afghanis, the oppressed people who may or may not support the regime that may or may not have sponsored terrorist activity. The tragedy of the Bush wars was that the 9/11 attacks weren't undertaken by a nation against whom we should have declared war, but nothing less than two endless wars seemed sufficient for retaliation.

Tense...really tense.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 16 September 2015]

"Restrepo" is a documentary from Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger and it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Shortly after this film debuted, Hetherington was killed while filming another military documentary in Libya. This isn't at all surprising, as the filmmakers were clearly in very dangerous territory while making these front line battle films.

The film consists of following the 2nd platoon, Battle Company in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. This was one of the most dangerous places any of the US military units could be at that time and the film chronicles the unit's action--including firefights, losses of troops in action and everyday activities. The name Restrepo, by the way, is the name of the company's camp--which was named after a member who lost his life in Afghanistan.

Overall, it's an interesting film...but. I say BUT because there are other similar films which were made in Afghanistan in recent years. So, there's sort of a 'been there/done that' feel to the movie--though it is well made and I really respect the filmmakers for putting themselves in this place and for making a very tense film.

interesting reporting? yes. award-winning documentary? no.

[prestonloyola · 4/10 · 27 December 2010]

It's a sad commentary on contemporary journalism that a film like Restrepo can win a prestigious award like the Grand Jury 2010 Sundance Best Documentary Award. Basically, the film-makers embed themselves with a US platoon in Afghanistan, document the experience, and intersperse interviews of some of the soldiers (taken after the period in question) throughout. There's no attempt to place the events in a larger context, no narrative to tie anything with the policy decisions taken in Washington, all we get is a raw "life in Afghanistan" seen through the eyes of soldiers on the ground in a single location. Don't get me wrong, it is quite interesting to actually see some of what is going on the ground in Afghanistan, after the thousands of hours of TV punditry and miles of newspaper column inches that media heads have filled with opinions, debates, tirades and justifications of the so called "war on terror". But this is the kind of reporting that should be omnipresent in our media, something you might see in a segment on 60 minutes, or some other outlet for investigative journalism (of which there are fewer and fewer).

Unfortunately, as we know, investigative journalism is expensive, and has dramatically been cut down in our age of media mega mergers. It's a lot cheaper to stick a few people around a table to mouth off on TV (and then cover the debate in the print media), then it is to ship true journalists across the globe (and around the centers of power in the US) who are not afraid to stir things up and take on the powers that be.

And so something like Restrepo - which is a bog standard journalistic piece - becomes an award winning documentary film. Examples of the kind of items that might be included in a wider scope documentary film worthy of awards: - Restrepo like footage in multiple locations in Afghanistan - similar footage of the other side (Taliban/AlQaeda or whomever is actually doing the fighting) with interviews on the reasons - interviews with the policy makers in DC explaining what the policies are and why, what they are trying to achieve - compare these goals with what is going on the ground - facts and figures about how much money is being spent on the war (compare to how much is being spent on Afghan aid), start digging into which corporations are making the most profit out of it - look at the cozy ties between retired DoD personnel and defense contractors etc, etc, etc you can just keep pulling at strings forever really... Tie everything into a cohesive narrative, maybe start actually providing answers to the still unanswered question of what we are actually still doing in Afghanistan, and maybe we would have an important documentary film worthy of an award. But a context free year in the life of a US platoon - sorry guys, that just doesn't cut it.

slice of life war documentary

[HEFILM · 8/10 · 26 June 2010]

Recent (say in the last ten years) Fiction films about war, BLACK HAWK DOWN for example, have taken the same approach this films takes. The men are men doing a "job" and earn our respect on that level. The fact they do "the job" is what earns our respect. The fact that War isn't your usual job is not questioned, not by the filmmakers or by the men doing the job.

Part of the job is not to question the job and you don't do a lot of debating while you're either hiding or shooting to save your own life. That's more of a Hollywood idea of war than reality anyway it would seem.

This keeps the film from being political, so doesn't alienate people who are pro or con to the specific war the movie might be about.

So this fits into our modern war film approach comfortably on that level. Does it need more than a slice of life approach to be fascinating and tension filled? Not really, if it's done well enough and this film is very well done. The men interviewed talk about being disturbed but they way they talk is real, one guy who can't really sleep at all since actually smiles through his this part of his interview, hiding his horror behind telling something he finds embarrassing. This is so different than the "acted" stories of war we get in movies traditionally and such.

Could the film have let us know some history to the valley the men are stuck in or try to let us in tactically a little more from a distance. Probably could have, though bits of this are filled in by the troops as they are the new group in the area and some past mistakes haunt them and they repeat some of those same mistakes. War isn't really a clean job after all or a nice one.

The central battle has very little footage, obviously the cameramen were hiding for their lives so that section is a series of very very close up talking heads, the professionally detached talking heads of those involved and their armor does crack as they get into it, the little actual footage of the battle shows the real raw reactions.

This is making the best of a bad situation for the filmmakers, but it does rob us the horrid experience of the initial attack.

No enemy dead are shown at all in the film, only some collateral damage victims. This, it could be argued, is slanted a bit from the filmmakers point of view, or of course is just a limitation of their "embedded" status with their troops. Perhaps, the film suggests, they rarely see the enemy up close in this particular valley fight. Perhaps, but they aren't shown for whatever reason. Likewise there is scant footage of some of those U.S. troops who die when they are alive. This does also take away some emotional connection. And frankly when everyone wears the same uniform and has the same haircut it does get confusing at a few points as to who is who.

Some of the footage is very crudely recorded, shaky/grainy to a distracting degree--to be expected, but don't sit too close in the theater. It's edited and assembled very well, if there is/are movie tricks, and certainly there are, in terms of "faking" reaction shots or re-ordering events to make it more dramatic---it's seamlessly done. It all feels honest.

It's a very very good slice of life and puts you there with the men. And though very young they do mostly come off as men. That's all it does and it does it perfectly. There is no "ulimate" film on this war because, of course it's still going on. This film would seem to suggest that it's not going to end with us, "on top" but it doesn't say one way or the other. If you want to see our volunteer army in action in one specific area for one year, there hasn't been anything better previous to this film or in any of the Iraq movies, docu and fiction, done so far.

Tim Hetherington's Legacy

[valleyjohn · 9/10 · 27 April 2011]

Exactly 7 days ago British director Tim Hetherington died in Libya from an RPG while working . Respeto will be his legacy.

This is an eye opening documentary film which follows an American platoon for a year in the most dangerous area of Afghanistan - The Korangal Valley. We see the toll the Afghan war takes on a group of young men who have been put in a near impossible position thanks to a bunch of oil greedy politicians. You get to see how close these men get to dying thanks to some fantastic and brave camera work. There are some very upsetting moment as the platoon lose men along the way and Innocent Afghanistan women and children die in the crossfire. How these , or any other men can put themselves through this is beyond me but they have my total respect despite my thought that we should never be in this unwinnable war. 90% of this movie is real footage where the other 10% are interviews with the soldiers. Restrepo is a superb documentary and it's a crying shame that we will never see this directors work again. Tim Hetherington R.I P

An outstanding documentary!...

[ajs-10 · 8/10 · 1 December 2010]

I have heard many good reports about this documentary recently and so I was surprised when it turned up on TV only a few months after its release. Of course it was immediately put into the planner and subsequently recorded for a viewing. It's well worth a watch if you can catch it, really compelling and pretty scary in places too! I guess I'd better tell you what it's about first (summary haters please wait back at 'The Kop' for the duration of the next paragraph).

This film tells the story of the Second Platoon and their fifteen month deployment in one of Afghanistan's most strategically crucial valleys, Korangal. Their main base is called 'The Kop', but they need an outpost which they build and name 'Restrepo' after a soldier, Doc Restrepo, who was killed early in the film. The main focus of the film is on the soldiers and their day-to-day battle against the Taliban. But it also gives us an insight into the lives of the soldiers and what motivates them to do what they do.

I really enjoyed this film, it has many highs and lows, but over all it gives an fascinating insight into the American operations in Afghanistan. If I have one criticism, it's that it did tend to get a little repetitive. But I can forgive that, it's an outstanding documentary, at times you feel like you're another member of the platoon fighting alongside them. Hats off to those guys and also to the filmmakers. Highly recommended.

My score: 8.2/10

not really worth watching

[niel-drummond · 4/10 · 19 December 2010]

A very monotonous view of the battle in Afghanistan.

If you don't mind watching plenty of interviews with immature soldiers facing the reality of modern warfare, this is your film. Sadly, the film is neither grim, nor funny, nor bloody, or anything more than a mediocre documentary.

The film does illustrate how inept the American forces are at negotiation, and the overwhelming emphasis on heavy weapons and air power. Possibly, it could entertain the pride of a nationalistic American, but to the vast majority of the rest of the world, it simply portrays the Americans as expensive buffoons.

No Hollywood BS here

[milo0566 · 10/10 · 25 January 2022]

They tell it like it is, raw and ugly, real combat not Hollywood combat. The people are real and the individuals who document this movie are just as real. Not many are willing to show the real truth of combat. This film is the best I've seen that documents war and the war fighters and civilian population that has to endure its horrors. As a veteran it's difficult to watch at times, but it also reminds me of the bonds I made with my comrades and the things we shared together.

once you're on the ground, things get real

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 3 May 2021]

The Afghanistan War has been the US's longest war in recent memory, although Biden has discussed the possibility of withdrawing troops. For the most part the war is a distant topic to the US public. Sebastian Junger's and Tim Hetherington's Academy Award-nominated "Restrepo" focuses on a US platoon in the Korangal Valley. It's a place without even the most minor convenience, and practically every decision in this setting is a life-or-death move. The guys in the platoon can only press on with their duty, ask the villagers questions, and hope not to get killed.

I doubt that any movie or documentary can fully show us the intensity of the battlefields of Afghanistan, but this one comes close. We get to see a lot of the nitty-gritty, whether in the fighting or in the troops' do-to-day activities. I recommend the documentary.