Part I: Bibliographic information
Title: Restrepo
Director: Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger
Producer: Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger (producers), John Battsek, Nick Quested (executive producers)
Cinemotography: Tim Hetherington
Copyright Date: 2010
Studio: National Geographic Entertainment/Outpost Films/Virgil Films
Type: Movie/documentary
Actors: The Men of Battle Company 2nd of the 503rd Infantry Regiment 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team
Format: TV boradcast/DVD video
Genre: War
Reading Level/Interest Age: 14+
Rated: R (language, violence)
Run Time: 93 minutes
ASIN:
Awards: 2010 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Part I: Plot Summary, Critical Evaluation, Reader’s Annotation
Reader’s Annotation -- A U.S. Army company is assigned to the Korengal Valley Valley of Afghanistan where the fighting is daily, the living conditions rough and deaths are not infrequent. Interviews with the soldiers look back in remembrances of their toughest battles and impossible to forget experiences of war.
Plot Summary -- This film begins one week before the deployment of a battle company of the U.S. Army as they head into their 15-month deployment in Afghanistan. They are jovial and pumped to head into the war zone. They are assigned to an extremely remote mountain area known as the Korengal Valley where Taliban soldiers are hidden in the hills and the residents are eek out a meager existence from little. Their first encounters with the enemy make it clear that this is going to be a dangerous fire fight with a season and well-armed enemy. “The Taliban begin where the roads end,” says 30-something year old Capt. Dan Kearney.
Several soldiers are killed early in their tour, including the well-liked Restrepo after whom the film and their outpost is named. The others carry on but the stress of combat is felt by all. They put their energies into building a remote outpost called Restrepo O.P. on the crest of a hill with close proximity to the enemy. They attempt to connect with the locals but it’s an uphill battle both linguistically and socially. The Captain works to win the hearts and minds of the locals through meetings with the tribal elders but it’s uncertain how much trust they earn. The elders support the Taliban they are later told through translators. A cow is killed in their Company’s electric wire fence this leads to some bad feelings on both side since the villages want money for it.
As their tour of duty comes to an end, they reflect through the interview on some of the toughest times as well as the men they served with
Critical Evaluation -- This documentary is filled up close and personal from the soldiers perspective. The field scenes are interspersed with traditional documentary interviews shot after the deployment ended that reflect on the incidents. This shows the reality of war -- the dangers, the grit, the impact of loss. They do not focus on the gore but rather tell a story in a way in which you get to know their young men and their daily routines. The filmmakers also explore the effort to win the psychological battle by working with the locals to convince them to cooperate -- these meetings are both fascinating and frustrating. The frustration is that you see that many of the leaders in the villages have no education and little understanding of the world. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army is making promises of economic gains and healthcare that does not every manifest. In the end, the frutility of war is the dominating theme that seeps through the fairly complex story of this companies deployment in what is clearly one of the worst places in country to serve time.
Part III: Author Info
Sebastian Junger is a New York-based journalist and author of The Perfect Storm (1997) and War (2010). He is the son of a physicist who left Germany during World War II because he was Jewish. The younger Junger attended Wesleyan University majoring in cultural anthropology.
Tim Hetherington was a British-American filmmaker who specialized in dangerous conflict zones. He was killed in Libya in 2011 making a film about the Arab Spring. He was an award winning photojournalist who worked in Africa and Afghanistan.
Part IV: Curriculum Ties, Diversity, Booktalk Ideas, Challenge Issues
Curriculum Ties, if any -- This film could be a complement to
Diversity of Cultures -- The Company is racially diverse but not a source of conflict; the Korengal Valley is home to Afghani natives whose cultural difference are a major component of the film.
Booktalking Ideas -- The images of war we see in this film include the men’s day to day living experience. They live in crude conditions with no exposure to the outside world save a few brief and occasional calls home. How does this differ from what perceptions we have about going to war?
Challenge Issues -- This film is very moving and does not hold back on the reality of war. It also leads us to see that the battle for this particular valley was pretty much in vain as the U.S. Army later pulls out. A possible challenge is to movie would be that it portrays U.S. Army life as not as great as the army might want young people to believe. A defense is that the film is one of the few reality films about modern warfare and helps anyone not there understand what these men go through.
Part V: Reasons chosen
Before I saw this film, the war in Afghanistan was more or less a vague vision of hot and remote area where a conflict was underway. This film shows in no uncertain terms that the boots on the ground have fought no intensely with small arms and taken not to infrequent casualties. It does not glorify nor cover up the reality of war. I think that this is essential viewing for any young person considering combat service. And, for those that chose not to, it’s important viewing in order to understand the sacrifice that is made by those that do.
Part VI: Citations
Restrepo. (2010). IMBd [website]. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1559549/
Sebastian Junger (n.d.). Background. Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Junger
Tim Hetherington (n.d.) Background. Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Hetherington
No comments:
Post a Comment