RESTREPO (USA 2010) ****
Directed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger

At the start of RESTREPO, the feel of the films RENACTED and THE HURT LOCKER immediately comes to life.  But as RESTREPO progresses, the audience realizes that there is one major difference between this one and the other two – what occurs in RESTREPO is real while the other 2 are fictitious.

Juan “Doc” Restrepo, is a 20-year-old Army medic private from Pembroke Pines who appears only twice in the new documentary bearing his name. On a train in Italy, he mugs for the camera. South Beach shades cover his eyes, and a huge grin spreads across his face.  “Tune in next time, where we’re still going to be lovin’ life—and getting ready for war,” Restrepo says to the camera.  But he is shot dead two weeks later.  His platoon, arriving in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, builds a high ground strategic outpost naming it RESTREPO out of respect for their friend.

Filmmakers Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger dug in, lived and ate with the platoon for an extended tile on the platoon’s 15-month deployment.  From the shaky camera, explosions and shots, one soon realizes that this is the real thing.

What the film lacks in research, interviews and background information is more than made up in the film’s authenticity.  In fact, the directors are not interested in interviewing family members, generals, the Taliban or debating over the futility of war.  Here, the doc charts the deployment of the platoon.  And what a result!

As the men eat and shoot, play guitar, sing, dance and wrestle. Hetherington and Junger marvelously draw their audience into the dangerous yet fascinating world of men bored, but bound by their duty to die and fight for country.  These are men to be admired.  And as the months and the film progresses, the faces become familiar and the audience gets attached to them.  The captain’s pep talk to the men after a similar platoon nearby suffered terrible casualties is especially moving.

When the soldiers finally get notice to return home and the choppers arrive to take them back, the audience feels relieved and delirious for these men.  This is when the audience realizes that Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger have made an awesome human drama.  RESTREPO won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary!