Restrepo is nominated for Best Feature Documentary. Sebastian Junger (author of the novel "The Perfect Storm") and photographer Tim Hetherington teamed up to film a year in the life of the American Second Platoon in Afghanistan. It won the award for best documentary at the Sundance Film festival.
Junker and Hetherington traveled with the Second Platoon and documented everything the soldiers went through. In battle and in their daily grind or boredom. It’s all there in the documentary; their fears, goofing around and their bond in brotherhood. The documentary is filled with dark humor and shows the many anxieties of being in a war.
In the documentary you see their struggles in holding back the enemy in a strategic valley. They name the action after their fallen brother, Restrepo. They loose many friends and form strong bonds with each other. The film is is also named after this fallen soldier. Inserted between the footage from Afghanistan are interviews with the soldiers. They talk about how they feel and discuss the action that just played out in the documentary. Throughout the documentary, I kept reminding myself that this was real and that all of this had actually happened. You feel the grief when one of them is killed and the others talk about it in the interviews. It is poignant and moving, more so because they had all lived it. When one soldier, Dan who I thought was the strongest emotionally, talks about a fallen comrade with tears in his eyes, I couldn’t help but feel his pain.
One battles aftermath was particularly hard to watch when another solder is killed and one of the others breaks down His comrades try to console him. They cover up the body to keep him from having to look at his friend, but he is inconsolable. They keep telling him not to look, protecting him from the awful sight. It’s is heartbreaking to watch. They have to be brave for the friend who breaks down, yet you can see the sorrow and fear in their faces.
The documentary reminds us what it was like for the soldiers to be there fighting. It's a necessary reminder. The wars are remembered, but the individual soldiers are forgotten. As an extra on the DVD. there in a written synopsis of what the soldiers were up to after the filming ended. I wish them all well. I'm giving a higher rating for this documentary, than if it were a movie, because these are not actors. They opened up and remained real, and were not hiding things from the camera.
The documentary reminds us what it was like for the soldiers to be there fighting. It's a necessary reminder. The wars are remembered, but the individual soldiers are forgotten. As an extra on the DVD. there in a written synopsis of what the soldiers were up to after the filming ended. I wish them all well. I'm giving a higher rating for this documentary, than if it were a movie, because these are not actors. They opened up and remained real, and were not hiding things from the camera.
Rating – 3.5 stars
