Genres

Visitors Review

2012-05-25 14:14:49

Raw, but amazing doctumentary

This review is from: Restrepo [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray) A true piece of history, giving us all a close glimpse of what our soldiers go through and are still going through in Afghanistan. Has changed me forever. Amazing documentary.

2012-05-24 14:43:04

Incredible -

'Restrepo' is a Sundance-winning documentary that covers the lives of a platoon commanded by Captain Kearney during the 15-months they spent in Afghanistan's six-mile long/half-mile wide Korengal Valley, near Pakistan. It is the most dangerous area in Afghanistan, later nicknamed the "Valley of Death." Occupying the Taliban-stronghold dominated by rich gangster families trafficking illegally between Afghanistan and Pakistan was intended to relieve pressure on U.S. troops elsewhere in Afghanistan; however, after 3+ years and the loss of 50-some lives, U.S. forces were withdrawn, and our bases abandoned. The 'story' begins with the soldiers landing in the area, incurring an IED that ruins their vehicle, and coming under immediate fire. Prior to that they had aleady lost their initial jauntiness and were expressing foreboding about the sudden change of environment and ominous silence. Many were already combat veterans, thanks to prior tours in Afghanistan and/or Iraq. Soon afterwards, the platoon's medic, 20-year-old PFC Restrepo - a Colombian immigrant, was killed; when the platoon established an outpost about 300 yards away it was named in his honor. Unfortunately, Restrepo was only the first to be killed, and one soldier suffers an emotional breakdown witnessing the death of a comrade.The rugged terrain, sprinkled with large rocks and trees, afforded excellent cover for the local Taliban - at times they were no more than 20 feet away, and still mostly invisible. The platoon's unstated assignment was to convince locals to turn against the Taliban - likely to be their relatives, and risk deadly retribution in return. Turns out the locals have heard promises from the Americans before, and didn't want to be 'rescued' by Americans supported by an Afghanistan government that had taken away their timber trade, a main source of income. Unfortunately, the soldiers became had to call in air strikes against homes used to launch strikes against them, and make house-to-house searches for Taliban and weapons - both further inflaming local opposition. Eventually, the survivors leave - happily, though not without mental trauma (eg. fear of sleeping, lest nightmares return them to the scene). The documentary also provided information on what happened after they left - many served again, sometimes twice, in Afghanistan, and left the Army despite winning a number of medals and advancement in rank. Viewers are left wondering what they had accomplished, short-term. Interestingly, the last platoon commander was the son of a West Point classmate of General McChrystal, who visited the site prior to its being abandoned in 2010 after leaders concluded it did more to spawn insurgents than defeat them. Unfortunately, this action will also make it more difficult to establish and maintain confidence in America's trustworthiness. About 5,000 gallons of fuel, a crane, and other rusty equipment was left, in exchange for being allowed to leave peacefully, according to then local commander Captain Moretti, son of a classmate of commanding Gen. McChrystal.Abandoning Outpost Restrepo and other nearby sites angered Pakistan, which claimed this compromised their efforts to put pressure on militants. Pakistan maintains 900 border forts near the border, compared to the once 80-90 on the U.S. side - since reduced by at least seven.Not included in the documentary, because it just recently occurred, is the fact that one of the platoon members, SSgt. Salvatore Giunta, was given the Medal of Honor by President Obama for some of his actions there - rescuing a wounded comrade being carried off by the Taliban. SSgt. Giunta modestly asserted that the medal should have been awarded to the entire platoon. Captain Kearney, reported by one viewer as the son of LtGen. Francis Kearney, is now Major Kearney.Side Note: Outpost Restrepo is also where the picture was taken of a U.S. soldier firing his weapon in 2009 without having taken the time to cover his "I Love NY" boxer shorts after being suddenly woken up.Leave your politics behind when you watch this excellent documentary that helps Americans understand what is happening in Afghanistan and what our military are going through there.

2012-05-23 07:16:45

Amazing!!

This movie is simply amazing. It really makes you stop and think, it's like the concept of the hurt locker (being in the action) but yet its real. Let alone in the Koringal Valley, this movie is absolutely worth seeing!!

2012-05-22 18:12:08

Haunting expose of life in the trenches...

A brief look inside a year-long deployment of US soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley is the focus of this documentary, Restrepo. Doc Restrepo, their medic, was killed early on in the deployment, and Outpost Restrepo was named in his honor. For months, this small unit of soldiers worked daily to win the hearts of the local residents (unsuccessful), identify the Taliban militants who fired on their positions almost daily (unsuccessful), punish the "bad guys" who shot or killed their platoon members (unsuccessful), and develop Outpost Restrepo as a permanent and important part of the US war effort (unsuccessful).The heros here were the men who took their duties in stride, everyday. This detail was not about honor and glory, and you won't find honor and glory the focus of the film. Instead, it is a brief, brief taste of the boredom mixed with excitement mixed with terror that is the US presence in Afghanistan.You'll feel a bit like a voyeur, but with the permission of the platoon. The photography team was embedded in the platoon long enough for the soldiers to adapt to their presence. The editing doesn't leave you with the ear-pounding music you experienced in Platoon, or the all the explosions and successful rescues you get in the most current war movies. And I suspect the media team was following the military's rules when it came to making sure they didn't show any images of dead or dying soldiers or militants. The worst gore is simply seeing the blood-stained dress of one soldier who was simply trying to help a friend.But I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat, wondering what was happening, or going to happen, with this group of men. And then, I wonder. Given their experiences, and training, would I want any of them for a neighbor?Damn straight.

2012-05-22 12:37:20

Restrepo

i am ordering the movie pre-release because I am confident that it will be every bit as good as the book by Sebastian Junger. Both book (War) and movie were done simultaneously while Junger was embedded with the military at a small mountain outpost in Afghanistan. I read the book a few months ago and have been eagerly awaiting the release of the movie which is mentioned in the book. The book is a magnificent tribute to our military at war...not to the generals and Pentagon gurus who supposedly mastermind the conflict but to the grunts who are the actual "boots on the ground" slugging it out every day with an enemy that is as elusive as they are fanatical.If you haven't read Junger's book "War" read it first...... then get the movie and see it unfold before your own eyes.

2012-05-22 03:31:43

Brilliant and utterly captivating

This review is from: Restrepo (Amazon Instant Video) Wow...what an incredible documentary film. In my opinion the most important (successful) element in the structure of how this film was presented is the one that was omitted... And that is narration. What is left is the experience of the soldiers and they are allowed to tell their own story. A story that sucks you in leaves you in awe that this type of real footage made it out to the light of day. Full credit to those who conceived, filmed, and pieced together this footage. It was more than just somebody's backyard project and yet it had all the authenticity of a home video. Thank you to all the soldiers shown here for your contribution.

2012-05-19 05:05:10

Sebastian Junger has done a masterful job

I'm currently reading "War" by Sebastian Junger. It is an intense story of his experience embedded with an infantry unit in a hostile and remote valley in Afghanistan. Restrepo is the film that came about during his time there. It is an amazing complement to the book. It puts real faces on the characters. I recommend it highly.

2012-05-18 21:40:02

Brave soldiers in a war with no strategy, and the wrong tactics

True, the soldiers are, to a man, brave, in "Restrepo," which as other reviewers have pointed out is a documentary w/o voice over, but still highly edited, as it covers 15 months of engagement by the US Airborne in the Korengal Valley, a thin eastward jutting spit of land in Afghanistan. The film follows these forces as they are sent in to battle Taliban elements in an extremely rural and traditional area, sparsely populated. Judging from the maps they spend most of their time at around 2200 - 2800 meters.The individual soldiers are quite brave and endure substantial hardships. What is not mentioned is that the locals have been living like this all of their lives, generation after generation. The American soldier can tolerate it for just over a yea. The captain (?) who commands the men is ill-suited for the assignment. His first raid on suspected Taliban ends up killing a number of civilianz, and wounding women and children. And this, in essence, is the real point of the movie. The bravery of some soldiers is wasted as the strategy of the mission is un achievable ("win hearts and minds") and the tactics heavy handed. We feel that the Americans are good guys, but they look pretty bad if you are a local. And a good chunk of the populous is Taliban - the sons, husbands and brothers of the locals. What do the Amerians offer them in return? Jobs? They won't live long if they co-operate with the Americans. Beans and rice when they kill an Afghani elder's cow? That won't get the job done either. In the film we understand as little, and see as little, of the locals as the soldiers do, and I believe that is part of the film maker's purpose. The job the American army is doing in the Korengal is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack with a bulldozer. The outlook is not good. If we want to change the political environment in that part of Afghanistan, we had better be prepared to stay for many decades to come.

2012-05-17 17:49:16

Holy Cow, awesome

This is one of the most powerful documentaries, or really, any other kind of movie, that I have ever seen. I watched the film after the death of one of the co-producers and I was riveted. Whatever one's thoughts on the Afghanistan war in particular or war in general, one can not help but be impressed by the conduct of the young soldiers. They win your heart over. The devastating consequences of war for soldiers are not given as much screen time as their real-time combat, but it is made obvious from the soldiers monologs and their interactions with one another, that they recieved deep wounds from their time in combat. For what it is worth, several people have commented that Junger's book, "War," is even better. I haven't read the book but I intend to buy it.WAR

2012-05-17 01:24:18

Reality Check

If this movie doesn't make you respect our men and women in uniform, you don't deserve American citizenship. Regardless of your political affiliation, this movie is a gut and reality check. Our servicemen and women are fighting a brutal war in hostile territory, trying to help another culture that cannot even conceive of the benefits we are trying to bring to them. The American and other international military are admirable in their bravery, in their altruism--they are there voluntarily--they were not drafted into the service--and are fighting for freedom for another country and to maintain freedom in ours. If you don't think your freedom is being threatened, then you don't realize that you too are an infidel--the target of radical Islam that is alive and well--not just in the Middle and Far East, but here in the US. Thank you to all our military. We owe you a great deal!

2012-05-17 13:37:24

Restrepo DVD

This review is from: Restrepo (DVD) A riveting documentary of on-the-ground life with a combat unit in Afghanistan; the every day difficulties of life, tensions, emotions, death of comrades and pervading fear of the unknown. In the end the outpost was abandoned and apparently the objective of building a road through the valley was abandoned with it.

2012-05-16 20:59:29

Great Documentary!

This review is from: Restrepo (DVD) Let me start by saying that 'Restrepo' is not a War movie. It is a movie about what the warrior goes through. It is an excellent, raw look at what these fine men and women go through to carry out the deeds that must be done. My hat is off to each and every person that has ever defended our country and this documentary is an excellent glimpse into what it takes to get the task at hand done and the toll it takes on those involved.

heaveyeo 2012-05-16 02:04:15

"Over the top"

Gritty depiction of the (sur)realities of modern warfare. "the only hope I have is that eventually I will be able to process itdifferently." These are the words of young men thrust onto the frontierof a conflict for which they have no ideology for or real stake in,except for their own survival of identity and self. Plucked from thesuburbs of working class America before been repackaged as fightingmachines then sent to one of the most hauntingly beautiful places inthe world to play tit-for-tat bombs and bullets ground combat with apeople and culture they can not and will not ever relate to at a humanlevel. The embedded reporting is at a hearts and minds level with thesetroops. Living with them through their daily experiences that gravitatearound shoveling rocks around the mountainsides of the valley in orderto create an outpost that "is like a big finger sticking up at them(Taliban)" a task that gradually finds rhythm and purpose in betweenthe fire-fights and the monotony of their existence far from home. Theyare so insulated from the locals (albeit by necessity to a largeextent) that from the top level of command down there is not once anyeffort to reconcile their posting with any external reality. They aredoing their "job" for a "1000 dollar a month" pay cheque and dentalcare. Any passion that they display is confined to the security oftheir outpost and consists of avenging the death of their comradeRestrepo and "hitting them hard." They do not distinguish the localsfrom the enemy, and the arrogance that is displayed in the meetingswith village elders by the top brass shows how it is impossible forthese guys to ever consider the human side of the valley even whenduring a chaotic patrol/raid they call in air support and end updestroying buildings and innocent lives within in pursuit of the enemy.They never really see the enemy, they hear the enemy (sometimesmonkeys), they are told the enemies eyes are on them, watching themfrom the trees, they cannot see the enemy they obliterate with largecaliber gunfire, only witnessing the body falling apart as it is gunneddown from distance by one of the specialists form the outpost. There issuch a fine line for these guys between reality and "war games" thatthey get such an adrenaline high from combat, they have no idea howthey will reconcile that with returning home eventually. During the daythey play around like teenagers, wrestling, slagging each other off,smoking the hours away but "…the fear is always there especially atnight...". This group of soldiers have few if any qualms about thepolitical, cultural, economic or human forces and values which are coreto this conflict. They never question the fact that they are there,only when they can go home and let the next battalion take over. Themission was one which ended and will always be for them a testament totheir fallen comrade and the outpost resurrected and defended in hisname, but beyond that there is no achievement for them…except becomingmen – blooded by the US military in a war that has no end, that echoesthe clarion calls of the political elite and the industrial militarycomplex that has pushed this war and the concept of terror to the veryfrontiers of (sur)reality. They return to civilian life battle scarredand proud, but the scars are likely to last a lifetime, pride willraise questions at night, with the nightmares and the sleeping pills.I liked this movie, it is a brilliant war movie, one of the best I haveseen. It is hard to believe the USM allowed it to be shot and released.It shows the ideological hollowness of American foreign policy, merelya conduit for the arms industry. It shows the complete lack of culturalsensitivity and assumed primacy of American might and right anywhere itsees fit. The futility of war evident in this movie is akin to WWI overthe trenches stuff. What has changed in the past 100 years of war andthe incalculable losses incurred by mankind? Have any lessons beinglearnt? It appears that the lessons learnt are kept for those in power,those who manufacture war and provide a steady stream of toy soldiersand bogey men on the Xbox or through the media for which we can allfight against in our hearts and minds. The technological individuationof western society is clearly evident here, the soldiers using hi- techweaponry, us the audience using dvds to watch the embedded reporting ofa conflict that bears no technologically capable resemblance to thecausal factors in loss of life in another war classic, Gallipoli, and Imean that in the sense that we can all see this happening in the wiredworld, yet it goes on and on, it's going on. We are all telling them"right lads.. over the top, over the top!"

2012-05-15 21:38:11

amazing movie

this movie is amazing. nothing like what the general media wants you to see, this is real life. have a friend who served over there and knows many of the soldiers shown in the movie personally and i heard many stories of what happened over there and it was very intense to actually see it happen on film. i highly recommend everyone see this.

ryandschreiber 2012-05-11 19:07:52

Puts you right there with our troops

Halfway through this movie I had to take a step back and tell myselfthat I am not actually there. I was on the edge of my seat the entiretime. And it's just a documentary, not a Hollywood film. At one point Iwondered if it could be possible that it was staged like Blair Witch,Paranormal Activity or the Fourth Kind. I personally don't like thosekind of movies and this is not one of them. This film also helped meunderstand better what we are doing in Afganistan and why. Thank you toall our troops who step up and put themselves in harms way and to theones who make the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms and the Americanway of life. I salute you all!

2012-05-11 16:44:13

Love this movie

If you want to know what our life is actually like out there, this is it. Like or hate it, I don't really care

2012-05-10 17:38:31

Insightful and thought provoking.

I have to say that I was quite impressed with this documentary. It is wonderful to watch a film about such a hard and controversial issue and not feel as though I'm listening to a republican or democrat whining about problems that happen during a war. The film does a fantastic job of piece together as best as it can a clear picture of life in a combat zone, one of the most frighting places I imagine a journalist can go on earth for a story. I'd recommend that people at the very least give this movie one view. Even if you don't like what you see, it will make you think.

2012-05-10 06:29:36

Restrepo

This review is from: Restrepo (DVD) I served with this unit, the 173rd Airborne, in Vietnam, and I am awestruck by the reality of Restrepo. It IS, after all, a documentary, but it shows the underbelly of war and raises the specter of the soldier returning to a lifelong struggle with PTSD>

2012-05-09 17:49:22

An insipid, mindless movie

Restreppo chronicles a group of American soldiers moving into the notorious Korengal Valley, a region considered one of the country's most dangerous. Weaving footage collected in the valley and interviews with soldiers conducted after, it aims to tell the story of this corner of the war through the eyes of these soldiers.Almost as an afterthought, it turns out that there are people who actually live in the valley, called Afghans, and who are subjected to the daily bombings of these soldiers. Of course, any consideration of their experience of the war, or of Afghanistan's long history and rich culture, is outside the scope of the film.At the same time, while the film vaguely encourages viewers to sympathize with the soldiers while dehumanizing or dismissing the people who actually live in the valley, there is no character development or back-story of any kind, apart from a few phone calls home and a brief description of one soldier's hippy parents. Thus, in a documentary ostensibly about a war with a dramatic human and economic toll, one of the most crucial issues of our time, the film is an insipid chronicle of young men hanging around an army base in unfamiliar territory, utterly devoid of any wider context or examination of either the war itself or their lives.The most disturbing feature of the film is that, in dozens of interviews with many soldiers, at no point does any of them express any empathy for the Afghan people, who they claim in vague terms to be helping. A particularly ironic scene occurs when soldiers surround the house of an elderly Afghan man, who is clearly terrified and begins shouting, but of course no one understands what he is saying. One of the soldiers later remarks that this was a frightening moment; it doesn't seem to occur to him that the old man may have also been frightened. This scene sets the racist tone of the film, which contains no discussion whatsoever of the likely fate of the Afghan people after the war.On this note, the soldiers interviewed demonstrate a disturbing lack of critical thinking about the war; one might imagine that this would be a key theme of a movie about soldiers experiences, but no one offers any insight whatsoever. Repeatedly, they speak of the need to "get the job done", or some similarly insipid slogan, but no one offers anything outside of this narrow context. Hardly any of them speak any of the local dialect, and neither they nor the filmmakers are at all interested in the country's history or culture. Thus, the main story of the film becomes the soldiers high-fiving and backslapping each other and shooting into space at what is blandly described as "bad guys" or "the enemy". We do see soldiers meeting with a group of elders in the local villages in several scenes. However, rather than providing any window into the local culture or experiences of the local people, these scenes merely reinforce the soldiers' calculated ignorance and contempt for Afghan people. On several occasions, the soldiers lie openly to the local leaders, claiming, for example, that after driving out the Taliban they will make the region rich--a fantastical claim given the current state of Afghanistan, which has one of the world's most corrupt governments and is by all estimates going to remain one of the world's poorest countries regardless of the war's outcome. Again, this theme lies outside of the framework of the film.The most revealing scene comes when they push forward into a new position, and in the process kill about five Afghan civilians. Everyone remarks that this is unfortunate from a strategic perspective, since they need to cooperate with the families of those they have now killed, but otherwise no one seems to reflect on the horror they are causing this community. When American soldiers are killed, the unique significance of their lives is celebrated in various ways, but when the people who actually live in Afghanistan die, and whose families will be there long after the soldiers have returned home, it is scarcely worthy of mention. Incredibly, the filmmakers manage to excise any critical reflection from this event, reinforcing the racist theme pervading the whole documentary.The movies ends by noting, seemingly without irony, that U.S. forces withdrew from the Korengal Valley shortly thereafter. Effectively, this means that the mission chronicled was, from a military perspective, a failure. In addition, an untold number of Afghan civilians were killed--no one bothers to count how many. The soldiers nonetheless congratulate themselves,ignorant to the very end, on a job well done, and return home to their previous lives (about which we still no nothing), and leave Afghanistan more or less as they found it.

2012-05-08 20:01:51

Real battle footage, no hollywood stuff

I rented this from Apple on special promotion, and the movie was about to expire, for some reason I didn't feel much like watching it. Once I played it, from the beginning you see real shooting footage, and camera man is in range of fire. It focuses on group of soliders throughout the film, their battle, and off-battle times. Interviews them after they return home for their perspective. Basically I have never seen something as true before.