Week 5 Restrepo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvUdruvbdmI&feature=player_embedded

Social, Historical and Political Documentary

         Restrepo is a documentary film by Tim Hethringtin and Sebastian Junger that is shot in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. The film focuses on a group of American soldiers that spend fifteen month in the deadliest posting in the United States military.  The documentary has an absurdly realistic feel to it. It is shot from the perspective of the soldiers, and it follows their narration. The viewer feels though he/she is a part of the ongoing combat, death, fear, despair, and pain that the Restrepo platoon has to live through everyday.

   Personally, I find it to be very difficult to identify the genre of this documentary. The only way that I can ever come close to doing so, is by breaking it down into three different categories: social, historical, and political.

   The Social aspect of Rertrepo comes out as the viewer is introduced to the natives of the region, where he/she receives an inside look into their styles of living. The viewer becomes familiarized with the mountain landscape of the region, the traditional clothing of the natives, the Islamic practices, the poverty and the hostile situations that the natives live in.  The film provides a fantastic description of the negotiation process between the Afghani civilians and the American soldiers, where the two opposite cultures meet to try to work out their differences and to discuss the ways in which they can either hurt or benefit one another.

    The Historical aspect of the documentary lies within the undeniable connection of Afghanistan War to the even of September 11. Though it is not verbally discussed in the film, the weight of 9/11 lies heavy upon this nation. The viewer of this documentary should already be familiar with the history of American War on Terrorism following the al Qaida attack on the Unites States in 2001.

     Though the film never provides any information on the political officials that stand behind the Afghanistan War, or does is discuss the American standpoint at all, Restrepo without a doubt is a political film. The Afghanistan War, as well as the Iraq War, is the making of American diplomats; however they are not the ones who put their lives on the line to fight for this nation. What the viewer sees in the film is the aftermath of political decision-making. The chaos, the death and the killings are all the aftermath of diplomacy.

    Seeing Restrepo is an unbelievable, mind-expanding experience. The film provides the kind of insight on military life that I have never had the chance to witness before. It describes with honestly the hardships of American soldier. It paints a portrait of human beings both emotional and emotionless, in a situation of life or death during a period of fifteen-month deployment. You cannot help it but feel troubled by this film. It raises questions such as: What is it all for? And what is it all worth? Can this war even be won? And whose is there to blame for it? Thought the film never provides the answers, it raises a great deal of awareness and hope that someday these questions will get answered.