Restrepo
Restrepo is a documentary that chronicles the experiences during a 15-month deployment of the Second Platoon stationed in Korengal valley Afghanistan, nicknamed the most dangerous place in the world. The plot of this film is a simple chronological look at the experiences in the valley, ranging from firefights, reconnaissance missions, attempts to break up the boredom and attempts to win the hearts and minds of the locals. In order to break up the location footage from the valley the film uses personal one-on-one interviews with the surviving soldiers, these are done very well using tight close-ups and retaining the pauses needed by the soldiers to get their story across, and thus projecting the emotion onto the viewer.
The action in this movie is portrayed very well and makes the viewer feel as though they are right there with the soldiers, at one point the camera has a bullet casing hit the lens of the camera it’s that close. The major focus of this film is the emotional response of the soldiers during and after battle, the film shows how the soldiers cope with the death of a comrade during the field assignment Rock Avalanche, the film does this with great care to avoid focusing on the dead and wounded for too long but focuses more on the soldiers reactions, which are captured unsparingly.
I really enjoyed this film as it avoids any explicit political discussions and is much more focussed on the soldiers who cant wait to leave but are determined to carry out their mission. The soldiers descriptions of battle are chilling especially when one describes the powerful addiction like “crack”, it is hard to imaging how these people assimilate back into normal society following the horrific events depicted in this film.
I would recommend this film to everybody as I believe it is a must watch. I give this film 5 out of 5.