Review of Restrepo (2010) by Catherine N — 29 Jun 2016

Sebastian Junger, what a brave, brave journalistic filmmaker! His 2007 documentary covers the mission of a band of army soldiers on a mission to rid the Korangal Valley in Afghanistan of the Tabilan. The troops endure constant fire from a barely visible enemy while attempting to aid complicit and innocent villages and capture/free more occupied territory.

Comrades die, get wounded, build an outpost in hostile territory surrounded on all sides while trying to maintain their sanity. Their mission, to the extent that it is successful, seems overwhelming and terrifying.

. Junger travels with the soldiers directly into combat captured get their time on tour and then cuts to personal interviews once the men have been sent back to Italy. The toll of their perhaps excruciatingly difficult mission ways heavy on the men yet Junger's sympathetic interviews humanize them and attests to their skill, discipline and frailty.