Restrepo

Winner of several awards and just recently nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, Restrepo is one of many recent films and books about troops in either of the current American theaters of war--Iraq or Afghanistan. In this case it's the latter, specifically the Korengal Valley, which we are told is the most dangerous place to be deployed. The filmmakers, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, stay with one platoon for the duration of their deployment, chronicling the events that take place.

I feel like a bad guy saying this, but I didn't find this film all that remarkable. There have been many films and books like this, and I wasn't moved by this one any more than the others. The title refers to an outpost that the platoon builds that they have named for a buddy who is killed early in the deployment, but we don't have much of a chance to get to know him.

The film is mostly cinema verite, with a cameraman right in the action, bullets flying around. This is certainly courageous, but these wars have been so covered by journalists that it didn't strike me as audacious or new. The action is interspersed with interviews with the soldiers after they have been sent out of country, which I found more interesting, particularly a man named Misha Pemble-Belkin, who was raised by hippies and not allowed to play with guns.

There's really no political statement made here, either. We see the officers meeting with local elders, trying to get them on their side against the Taliban, but after they lead a raid that kills locals this almost becomes impossible. There is a drolly funny scene that involves local men trying to get reimbursed for a dead cow, with the soldiers being admirably respectful of the situation.

If anything, this film captures the essence of the men fighting over there. They're loyal and decent family men, and I was appreciative that they were respectful of the local population (at least it was edited that way--aside from one soldier shooting and yelling "Take that turban-head" there are no ethnic slurs). I just don't get what separates this film from all the others.