Restrepo – Die blutige Wahrheit des Krieges (2010)

Restrepo – Die blutige Wahrheit des Krieges: Directed by Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger. With The Men of Battle Company 2nd of the 503rd Infantry Regiment 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Juan ‘Doc Restrepo, Dan Kearney, LaMonta Caldwell. A year with one platoon in the deadliest valley in Afghanistan.

“u0026quot;The horror! The horror! u0026quot; Joseph Conradu0026#39;s Heart of Darkness.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCNN describes Afghanistanu0026#39;s Korangal Valley as u0026quot;the most dangerous place in the world.u0026quot; After seeing the powerful documentary Restrepo, I can understand the description, and I can admire an almost new dimension to that type of film: objectivity.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAn American company of soldiers spent 15 months in that valley with filmmakers Tom Hetherington and Sebastian Junger recording the soldiersu0026#39; combat and more importantly their personal reactions. For indeed Restrepo is about soldiers fighting an enemy they canu0026#39;t see, a boredom they canu0026#39;t leave behind, and friendships they will keep forever, depending on how long forever can be in such a hostile environment.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe singular feature of this Oscar-winning film is its attempt to make no judgment about the appropriateness of the war; it just chronicles the lives of young men stretched by fate to an endurance few of us could even imagine. Not that itu0026#39;s all that bloody or manic; itu0026#39;s just that the terror of an enemy hidden by mountains hangs about like a fog to such an extent that when they do kill one far away in the foothills, they rejoice as if they had wiped out a platoon. When the tired soldiers dance to u0026quot;Touch Me (I Want Your Body)u0026quot; by Gunther and Samantha Fox, they celebrate life, not killing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBack to that objectivity: Even a documentary marries fiction when directors choose some images over others. In Restrepo the choices lead me to question how the US could ever win this war, not because thatu0026#39;s the directorsu0026#39; statement but because the successes are limited to building a stronghold, Restrepo (named after a fallen comrade), at the top of a mountain among mountains that dare the most powerful army in history to try to win this one when none has ever been won here. Indeed, the army has subsequently withdrawn.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhile the fictional Hurt Locker minimized its bloodshed in favor of the representational, Restrepo takes no liberties but goes for the real, which in this case is like waiting around a movie set for something to happen. And when it does, it can win an Academy Award.”