Restrepo.

This week on 'Real Life Month' we take a look at a documentary about war, as made by American Journalists who were dropped in the middle of a unit. Enjoy!
Restrepo is about Second Platoon, Battle Company and their 15 month deployment in Afghanistan in 2007. Specifically Korangal Valley, which is considered one of the most dangerous posts in the US Military. The Korangal Outpost, or KOP, is a place of much paranoia - it's scary enough being in the middle of a war, worse when you're in a place with fire every day, where mountains rise up around you at all sides with insurgents unseen raining down bullets. Basically their mission is security, the locals are trying to build a road through the valley, and these men are there to make sure they do. People die quickly, loss mounts fast. The film eventually focuses on 'Rock Avalanche' their most deadly mission, they can defend all they like, but the insurgents will continue to turtle, so eventually the Americans had to push, take the fight to them - the time is now. Then really we just focus on their day to day lives, the lives who are lost and their eventual chance to get home.

The title itself, Restrepo, refers to two things, the first was a platoon Medic named Juan Sebastián Restrepo who was killed early in the campaign and also after a base, as the men dug a tiny hole through the night, defended it through the day, just to hold the main position the insurgents had been using for the last year and a half. We see Restrepo grow over the progress of the film, to this oddly home like...almost nice place, not somewhere you'd want to go back to, but it sure looks a lot better at the end than it does at the start. This is the units greatest achievement.

Ironically with all the explosions and gunfire going on around them, a lot of the central conflict comes from the Local Elders, who hold their own personal and religious beliefs seemingly much higher than their own safety, making the soldiers jobs even harder than they already are. This film is pretty much devoid of all politics, and the clash between the elders and the soldiers is about as topical as the thing ever gets.

All events are punctuated by members of the unit, as they recount their experiences in conjunction with the visually documented stuff. That being said, it seems odd that with something as emotionally and politically charged as war, that the film itself is so withdrawn. I think there are odd moments you hear Junger and Hetherington behind the camera, but that is it, that is the extent of their participation other than filming the thing. Even with the two journalists living through this together, even through obviously all the thousands of hours of footage they went through to make this film, the film is just so emotionally devoid - emotionally dead. I mean that isn't to say the content itself is emotionally dead, it's impossible to capture emotionless war footage, it's just the film itself and its construction that for the most part seems to try and pretend it isn't there. You could argue on the one hand that this is a strength, that to make a film with a topic like this so objective shows skill - which it may well do, but it could just as much show the journalists going half in and so in the end it feels less like a documentary and more like a reality TV show. And I mean don't get me wrong, this style doesn't always fail, I think this detached style really helped capture the reality of the war and managed to avoid being either overly left-wing or overly propagandalike which gives the film a certain strength. But there are other, extremely powerful moments where the camera is just pointed at the men, the filmmakers just let it play out and it becomes less of a documentary and more like awkward voyeurism as the film locks you there, forces you to stare, when the more respectable would look away. 

That also isn't to say it's a badly made film, either. Junger and Hetherington charge head first into firefights, trying to capture everything they can while not getting shot at themselves. And when they aren't running around with a camera getting shot at, they take the time to capture their surroundings with some truly beautiful cinematography. The Valley is a beautiful setting, the occasional shots from up high where the camera sweeps through he Valley is truly something. Much can be said for the violence too, the bullets light up the sky as they whiz through it, for a second it's easy to forget that each one of those beautiful lights could kill a man.

Restrepo is a movie about war, so prepare for it to be action packed...but don't come here expecting to be thrilled. When people we have followed around and got to know, who we also know are real, get locked in firefights or caught explosions, about the only thing you feel is fear. Fear for their lives. Not every soldier is as fleshed out as the next, it would seem they chose how much of themselves they put into this - but even if you forget names, it's much harder to forget their faces. This reality gives Restrepo an edge over a lot of films, for example, most war films add consequences, conflicts and so on - but they are usually superficial as the protagonist has to win in some shape or form in the end, here...not so much. The Americans fuck up and real lives are lost in the process.


It's very easy to pigeonhole war, whether it being shown in a glorious, clinical, American Flag waving fashion or whether it being shown in a gritty, violent and ultimately condemning fashion, what Restrepo does is capture the two sides of that coin, the two origins for these archetype war movie tones. Because on the one hand, these guys are just like a big family, they are all good friends, making the most out of what they have, just trying to keep everything level, and some firefights they'll claim are a rush and everyone is okay by the end of it. On the other hand people die, mistakes are made and reality comes swinging at you like a wrecking ball. It's easy to parade it as something glorious when you aren't there, it's easy to claim it as something unjust when you aren't there, it's difficult to truly place it when you're living through it - even in the detached, safe world of a documentary.

So do I recommend it? Restrepo is a well made movie, chronicling some truly ballsy journalism and some true heroics from the American Military...but Restrepo didn't work for me. War is coupled with emotion and politics, you can't cut one bit out without cutting another, all you can do is shy away from it which is what Restrepo does, creating an oddly muted - almost reality TV show like experience. Sure it's a documentation, but I don't truly see this as a documentary. This is, however, a personal thing, documentary filmmaking has a lot more stylisation than normal movies, which makes ones reaction to them much more subjective which in turn makes it much harder to make an honest, grounded review on. It is an enjoyable movie, but I think the reality TV show style will make or break this movie for a lot of people.

Think About It!

-Locke