Review of Restrepo (2010) by Scott G — 06 Nov 2010

Worth watching, as its a well made piece of film making. Its an accomplished look at the fear, tragedy, camaderie, and ignorance of a platoon of American soldiers under intense fire in another war torn strip of earth.

I cant say I felt any empathy with the soldiers, particularly their General. He seemed quite inarticulate for a man in such a position of authority, and also lacked any subtelty or skill, when communicating with the Afgani Elders. Surely a man of his rank and responsibilities should have some basic level of the local dialect? No? Some regret at having mistakenly killed five innocent locals? An apology for bombarding a small village who clearly offered no threat to him or his men? Why apologise, sure this is war, and its in someone else's country.

Where was the enemy? The shapeless killers beyond the hills are never seen in the documentary, only the ominous crackle of gunfire to indicate that they are indeed out there...somewhere. It makes the enemy an abstraction, giving added credence to the actions of these one dimensional men. The focus centres almost entirely on a group of grunts who love their weapons, their fire fights, their kills; and who all fail to offer any kind of meaningful insight into their plight. There were moments where I believed one of them might be on the verge of saying something poignant, something that would cause us to reflect on the horrors of such situations. Alas, it never came. Only the usual primeval, guttarel nonsense from boys who perhaps should'nt be placed into vital situations like Afganistan.