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Restrepo (2010)
Immediate, powerful, gritty, courageous and heart wrenchingly futile
I grew up on idealism. I watched Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Norris and never questioned the nobility and sacrifice that must be endured to maintain our ideals in a black and white world. I believed it and took it to heart. I went down the path of wanting a career in the military.
Leftists are quick to trounce Hollywood's war narrative as being self indulgent, and understandably so. Hollywood rarely supports movies which articulately examine the other side, it's not exactly good for business. We all know about our atrocities but we don't need to be reminded about them in our movies, idealising ourselves as being heroic is much better for selling seats at the movies. If we're not Rambo or Braddock, the gallant hero upholding liberty and justice, we're the sacrificial warrior who's returned from war damaged. Examples include Deer Hunter, Rambo, Platoon and the Hurt Locker.
The Hurt Locker apparently didn't tackle the politics, it presented the sacrifice our young men make on our behalf. Like the Deer Hunter, it's a "real" story about our tragedy in war. If I'm honest, this is partly why I think this movie resonated the way it did. It does little for leftists to criticise something like the Hurt Locker because it's apolitical – it's about the troops and we all know unpopular it is if you don't support the troops.
For the record the Hurt Locker was obviously unashamedly pro-American and I don't think it is apolitical either.
I expect Restrepo will come to be regarded in much the same way, moreover it has the added authenticity of reality. Like the Hurt Locker, it is not about the politics of war, it's about the soldiers. It's about their sacrifice and boy do they make it, in spades. Some die but most give something of themselves that is lost forever and in return they have an experience forced upon them which is so immediate it will never be far from their thoughts.
Very, very powerful stuff.
This is a raw film in every sense and this extends to the filming. I don't do well with jerky filming with quick zoom in and outs. I know most people don't have as much of a problem but it really makes me want to throw up. I do think the filmmakers over indulged to add authenticity but I'm not going to overly criticise it.
This is a film about the American experience, it is not about the wider war and has even less to do with the enemy.
*** Spoilers Ahead ***
Restepro is interesting because while no one could deny the courage of these young men it also asks many passive questions not just about our approach to Afghanistan but maybe our ideals in general... A Captain entering a new war zone not wanting to know about it, a soldier and his "f**king hippie mother" who wouldn't let him have so much as a water pistol and the other solider who doesn't know how he'll top the high of a fire fight. The photo of the kid back home dressed in army fatigues, presumably the son who wants to emulate his heroic father.
Even though the soldiers engage with Afghan locals it is with an overwhelming crippling suspicion on both parts. When the Afghan elders enquire about someone, the Captain tells the locals that he doesn't give a f**k about so and so for grimacing reasons which we as the audience should identify with. When the locals' cow is killed by the soldiers, the offer of rice and beans to repay the debt is met with vacant stares of incredulity. The soldiers tell them in no uncertain terms that if you came looking for money it's not going to happen. There's no mistaking that in the Korangal Valley, it's the Americans who call the shots.
And sometimes those shots don't always hit who they're supposed to. Sometimes those shots stray into places where they shouldn't, killing and maiming the innocents. The Colonel is brought in to explain that the burned babies are unfortunate but essentially they are collateral damage. That's the price paid when the Taliban intermingle with the locals. If the Taliban would just come out to fight the Colonel's soldiers then this wouldn't happen. Such is the unfairness of an asymmetric war.
For some of the soldiers who fought there, the Korangal Valley became the last place they'd see. For others, behind the awkward smiles and the incomprehension, it will be a lifetime of nightmares and memories which will haunt them forever.
Watching these kids is humbling and staggering and I am genuinely in awe of how they can stare death in the face on a daily basis. They deserve more, way more than the $1,000 bonus they might get if they were to stay an extra month. I couldn't do it, more to the point I wouldn't want to do it, not if this is how the war is fought. Al Qaeda have spawned an ideological war which cannot be defeated alone by "getting some".
Perhaps the most sobering part is displayed as the credits roll; in April 2010 the Korangal Valley was abandoned altogether, and I can't help feeling if that is how the war in Afghanistan will end.