The filmmakers weren't determined to make an anti-War film, but what they reveal is the most pathetic aspects of today's armed forces: the boyish, obnoxious young men who go off to war like summer camp in an era when battles are won or lost behind the lines. The media reported the occasional combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan like soldiers never die at war, and the boy scout soldiers in Restrepo are ceremoniously devoted to that presumption, memorializing their fallen comrade in a sandbag fort that accomplishes nothing except a handful of deaths: soldiers, civilians, Taliban rebels— does it really matter? The enlisted soldiers seem youthful and sometimes innocent, like we might actually find their deaths to be unfortunate, while the sated, ratlike face of the West Point lieutenant in charge of the outpost shows just how irresponsible today's Army might actually be. "Do I look like I f***ing care?" the lieutenant ejaculates in response to concerns of Afghani villagers. Later, some innocent children die in a misguided air raid. The lieutenant reflects to the camera that it's hard, you know, we're supposed to be fighting them, but we're not fighting them— them, you know, the Afghanis, the oppressed people who may or may not support the regime that may or may not have sponsored terrorist activity. The tragedy of the Bush wars was that the 9/11 attacks weren't undertaken by a nation against whom we should have declared war, but nothing less than two endless wars seemed sufficient for retaliation.
Review of Restrepo
