Restrepo

This is one very, very gritty documentary that brings the pains of war straight home through the TV screen. The directors of this film captured what life is like for our American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and made sure that we realized what our guys are going through day in and day out. The film follows a platoon into the Karengal Valley in Afghanistan, considered to be the most dangerous front in the world, and shoots from a perspective that makes you duck every time gun shots ring. The directors made sure that we were near the action at all time, barely out of the way of the flying bullets. They also gave us a full scope of the platoon’s emotions. We were presented with the jovial, playful nature of young men who’ve probably been out of high school no more than a couple of years. Then came the battles that transformed happy young men to embattled and pained older men. The death of “Doc” Restrepo seemed to give the entire platoon the motivation to build a defensible fort that would properly honor his memory, and help ensure that the men of the company would be able to avoid Restrepo’s same fate.

I was absolutely moved by this film. I feel as though our own media tends to neglect the true stories of our soldiers abroad. Restrepo is the film that America needed to see. Glad I did.