Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Restrepo Blu-ray Movie Review

Never forget.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 14, 2010

Is every century fated to have a “forgotten” war? The 20th century relegated the Korean War to a sort of netherworld, sandwiched in between the more remembered—for better or worse—World War II and Vietnam conflict. Now the 21st century seems to be repeating this syndrome with the Afghanistan War, which has been shunted to the sidelines by the more controversial and devastating Iraq battle. It’s rather ironic that the disputed reasons for entering Iraq to begin with should have elevated that clash into a higher public profile than the Afghani fracas. When you have a former Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff calling the Bush-Cheney rationale for entering Iraq a bunch of “lies and deceptions,” that of course only adds fuel to the fire and further makes Iraq the focus for those who, though probably well intentioned, put political ideology above all else. Somewhere along the line, the American public has largely forgotten about the perhaps more dangerous terrain of Afghanistan, a country that is so barren and forsaken that it has brought virtually every interloper who dared to fight inside it to its knees, including, of course, the Soviet Union. Will the United States suffer the same fate? The story is still being written, of course, but we now have a devastatingly serious wake up call about what this struggle is really like with one of the most important documentaries of this or, frankly, any year, Restrepo. This incredibly objective—yet entirely visceral—piece, co-directed by Tim Hetherington and The Perfect Storm author Sebastian Junger, should be required viewing for every American, no matter what their political stripe, or how they feel about Iraq and Afghanistan in particular, or war in general. Unvarnished, frightening, depressing, inspiring—Restrepo is all of these and more and is one of the finest real life depictions of what day to day combat conditions are like ever captured on video.

Restrepo takes its name from a field medic who was killed in action helping to defend the Korengal Valley, a refuge for the Taliban where American incursions have been measured literally in feet and yards. One of those insanely small advances was the few meters between OP (Outpost) Korengal (which the guys call “Kop”) and a new mountaintop encampment named OP Restrepo. Fifteen men manage to get to this hilltop and get a semblance of protection up around them as they engage in several firefights a day. As their Captain proclaims, getting this base built was like sticking a prominent middle finger out toward the Taliban, who had become bold enough to virtually get within a hand’s reach of some of the American soldiers.

This is a war documentary unlike any other in recent memory. There’s no pontificating, no political slant, and perhaps best of all, no narration. No one gives “context” or “background”; instead, the audience is put squarely in the line of fire with the soldiers themselves. There are “confessional” interviews with a lot of the men, several of them heartbreaking and emotionally devastating, but that’s it. There’s the on the scene footage of what day to day life is like in Afghanistan, where a bumpy ride in a Hummer can come to a startling end when the men hit an IED. And then there’s the almost post traumatic stress disorder recountings of the death and destruction these men endured, told by the men themselves. If you are able to make it through this film without a pit in your stomach developing, you’re made of stronger stuff than I.

There are moments of emotional breakdown here that will shock some viewers. When one of the men, thought by his buddies as the “best fighter” in the squad, is killed, one of the men has a breakdown that will bring the horrors of war home in a disturbingly visceral manner. At other times, there’s a more subtle heartbreak at work, as when one of the younger guys—and some of these men are boys, frankly—picks up his guitar and reminisces about Restrepo, who evidently was a great flamenco guitarist, while twinkling Christmas lights flash behind him in the barren hut where the guys live.

Restrepo doesn’t shirk from mistakes the Americans have made. The “new” Captain, Dan Kearney, in attempting to reach out to tribal elders in the Valley, makes no bones about his predecessor’s standard operating procedure of shipping insurgents off to Bagram, where they’re never seen again. Kearney urges the Afghan natives to “wipe the slate clean,” probably easier said than done. Later, in a shocking mortar attack by the Americans, five locals are killed and several children are wounded. This “collateral damage” suddenly has a face and repercussions. How different than our immunized viewings of “shock and awe” on the nightly news, where things are usually scrubbed clean for mass consumption.

Rarely has such an unfettered and unblinking look at war been offered to the public. While it’s true some of the most devastating battle elements aren’t included on screen, perhaps due to the filmmakers taking cover, the immediate aftermath of several of these intense skirmishes are caught in intimate detail. These incredible men are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit under very trying circumstances. On November 16, Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta of the 173rd Airborne became the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam conflict. Giunta was deployed to the Korengal Valley at the time Restrepo was filmed. As Giunta himself has humbly gone on record admitting, he did nothing “special” (that might be argued, of course). What Restrepo makes abundantly clear is that every man of the 2nd Platoon, Battle Company, 173rd Airborne is an American hero, and we should all be thankful for their service and the hardships, both physical and perhaps even more importantly emotional, which they withstood in service to their country and to keep all of us safe.

Restrepo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Don't expect feature film hi-def wonderment with Restrepo, which comes to Blu-ray via an MPEG-2 codec in 1080i and 1.78:1. This "experiential" documentary was filmed under very trying circumstances, not to state the obvious, and as such a lot of the Afghan footage is relatively soft, sometimes grainy (especially in darker scenes), and suffers from the vagaries of battle-shot sequences, including shaky camera work, moments of confused framing and brief out of focus elements. All of that said, a lot of Restrepo bristles with excellent detail, with well saturated color and good depth of field in the Korengal Valley footage. The interview segments obviously look the best here, with excellent fine detail, sometimes heartbreakingly so, as when you can clearly see suppressed tears welling up in one of the interview subject's eyes. All of this said, while Restrepo is certainly not as sharp and breathtakingly detailed as studio shot features, one of course shouldn't expect it to be, and on its own terms, Restrepo's Blu-ray presentation looks admirable.

Restrepo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Some audiophiles will probably lament the lack of any lossless audio options on Restrepo, but both of the Dolby Digital tracks perform quite well within their lossy confines. The 5.1 track has some frighteningly immersive moments, with really devastating LFE. In fact the first IED attack, shot from within a Hummer, is almost certain to jar your senses and leave you suitably shaken. The firefights are viscerally immersive, with mortar rounds and automatic gunfire zinging to and fro from every direction. Some of the battle dialogue is buried in the ambient battle sounds, but that only adds to the reality of Restrepo. The interview segments sound crisp and clear with excellent fidelity.

Restrepo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There may not be a bounteous supply of extras on Restrepo, but a lot of what's here is top notch:

• Deleted Scenes (1080i; 20:25) has some great moments in it, some of them poorly edited, probably accounting for the decision not to include them in the final product.
• Extended Interviews (1080i; 26:13) is the best supplement on the disc, with even more up close and personal segments with the platoon.
• "Sleeping Soldiers" Photo Gallery (1080i; 1.33:1; 4:36) is really a sort of photo montage of the guys catching a few "zzz"'s segueing in and out of raw footage of the carnage they encountered in their everyday lives.
• Public Service Announcements for IAVA, Operation Homefront and TAPS.

Restrepo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Those of us who have never fought in a war can't even imagine what day to day life must be like in combat conditions. Add in the barren and harsh reality of Afghanistan, and that makes what our fighting men (and women) go through even harder to conceptualize. Hetherington and Junger deserve major kudos for bringing us Restrepo without any subtext, no political posturing, and no "point of view" other than an up close and disturbingly personal account of how this conflict has affected a platoon comprised of disparate men. This is easily one of the finest documentaries on any subject I've seen, and it certainly sets a new standard for documentaries focusing on war. Restrepo unquestionably receives my Highest Recommendation.