[Peace-discuss] Cable documentary on Afghan war Monday

[Ron Szoke]

The documentary film "Restrepo," about the US war in Afghanistan,  is 
scheduled to be shown Monday night, Nov 29th, apparently at 8 pm, on 
the National Geographic cable channel.

A review:  
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Restrepo
An inhuman tour of duty
Release Date: 2010

Ebert Rating: ****   

By Roger Ebert Jun 30, 2010

"Afghanistan” is a word on the news, debated in terms of our foreign 
policy. Almost an abstraction. Nobody thinks about foreign policy in 
“Restrepo,” a documentary shot during the 15 months an American 
company fought there under almost daily fire. They were in the Korangal 
Valley, described on CNN as “the most dangerous place in the world.”

It is also one of the most desolate, even in the arid land of Afghanistan. 
Sparse vegetation clings to the rocky, jagged terrain. There is dust 
everywhere. It is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, and 
in the movie, at least, the troops only actually ever see one Taliban 
fighter — and the man who saw him thought it was the last sight he 
would ever see.

The Taliban is an elusive presence, moving freely through the landscape 
and population, and there is one point when the company is ambushed 
and takes fire from 360 degrees. That all of them were not killed seem 
surprising. The film is named after the first one of their number to die, a 
20-year-old medic, Pfc. Juan S. Restrepo.

Battle Company is led by Capt. Dan Kearney, whose plan is to establish 
an outpost at a key point on Taliban battle routes. The men occupy the 
position at night and start digging in, using earth to build fortifications. 
They catch the enemy off-guard. The successful maintenance of Outpost 
Restrepo, named for their dead comrade, turns the tide of war in the 
hostile valley and frightens the Taliban. But the hearts and minds of the 
locals remain an uncharted terrain.

Kearney holds a weekly council with the local elders, a group of men 
who could not look more aged, toothless and decrepit if they tried. A 
portrait of one would be all you needed to suggest the poverty of the 
region. One elder complains he has lost a cow. It’s explained that the 
cow became tangled in razor wire and had to be put out of its misery. 
He is offered compensation: The cow’s weight in rice, beans and sugar. 
He wants cash. His heart and mind are not won.

The location footage is intercut with debriefings of the survivors 
conducted soon after they’ve been flown out to Italy. They use 
understatement to express strong emotions. The deaths of men they 
fought with are almost impossible for them to speak of. The memory of 
Restrepo lived on in the guitar lessons he provided and his book of 
flamenco songs. He was a great favorite. After Outpost Restrepo grew 
from a dugout into a proper position with shelter and fortifications, they 
felt right having named it for him.

They all speak with special dread about an operation named Operation 
Rock Avalanche, fought through deadly country. They come under fire 
three, four, five times a day. There are many firefights in the film, but 
they all share one feature: We never see the enemy, and we never see 
the American targets. 

This is hard, hard duty. A 15-month tour. Our admiration for these men 
grows. Their jobs seem beyond conceiving. I cannot imagine a civilian 
thinking he could perform them. It would take much training — and 
more important, much bonding. There is the sense they’re fighting for 
each other more than for ideology. At a low point when a nearby 
company has taken heavy losses, Kearney talks to his men not in terms 
of patriotism, but in terms of finding the mofos who are shooting at 
them, and going out and killing them.

The film is nonpolitical. It was filmed at great personal risk by the war 
photographer Tim Hetherington and the author Sebastian Junger (The 
Perfect Storm). It raises for me an obvious question: How can this war 
possibly be won? At the end, a title tells us U.S. troops withdrew from 
the Korangal Valley and therefore Outpost Restrepo in 2010.

Cast & Credits

National Geographic presents a film produced, directed and 
photographed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger. Running time: 
94 minutes. Rated R (for language throughout, including some 
descriptions of violence).
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For other critical reactions, see also:  
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/restrepo/>