Review of Restrepo (2010) by Jim H — 09 Feb 2011

This documentary's main achievement is its degree of "imbeddedness." Some of the shots that these filmmakers were able to get, under the harshest, most dangerous conditions, are absolutely incredible. We get to see soldiers taking and returning fire, and the action is so close, so compelling that I almost expected a bullet to shatter the camera at any moment. Such scenes, truer than life, create a suspense that no action movie can imitate.

The DVD cover contextualizes Restrepo "coming after The Hurt Locker," and this an apt comparison. Both films attempt to be apolitical (though it may be my liberal sensibilities that make me see both films as anti-war), and both films deal with the intense personal damage inflicted by armed conflict. These films present a little realized truth, one that Chris Hedges, whose quote serves as an epigraph for The Hurt Locker, so eloquently describes in War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning. Namely, combat veterans become addicted to war, and this drug wreaks as much havoc as any chemical.

Overall, though some documentaries are able to mold the subject matter into a coherent storyline, Restrepo presents soldier life in all its ugliness and glory, and what we come away with is the stark realization that both responses - ugliness and glory - can actually occur in the same moment.