'Restrepo': Required Viewing for All Americans

If you have not served in combat, go see Restrepo … and if you have served in combat, go see Restrepo. Every American should watch this gripping film if for no other reason than to allow our collective conscience as a nation to better understand exactly who is fighting our wars and the significant challenges our troops face.

During my 13 months in Afghanistan, I spent a total of about five hours in the Korengal Valley in Eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar Province, half of that time in a firefight. Turns out, that calculation was about average.

Sebastian Junger’s and Tim Hertherington’s new movie, named after KIA medic Private First Class Juan S. Restrepo, captures in gritty detail what no Hollywood production ever could. The Korengal Valley, now abandoned, was the most dangerous place in Afghanistan. And this movie, with the tagline, “One Platoon, One Valley, One Year,” shows us why.

Sitting in a theater audience of 500 viewers during the Washington, DC premiere, I was immediately thrust back into not only my short Korengal tenure or my Afghanistan tour, but my entire 28 year career. Looking in the eyes of the men on the screen, I was reminded of so many thousands of great Americans with whom I had the privilege to serve in places like Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Panama. Indeed, the beauty of this movie is that it has a timeless quality, as if you were to take any group of 30 soldiers from Afghanistan or Iraq or Vietnam or Korea or World War II and you would see the same camaraderie, passion, anger, and fear.

Indeed, veterans and families of all wars will identify with men such as Restrepo, Patterson, Pembel-Belkin, Rice, McDonough, O’Byrne, and all of the others. In a crisp 90 minutes the movie pulls you into the Korengal Outpost and then further into the remote, isolated Outpost Restrepo. All of the footage is real, shot by two journalists who spent a combined 10 months with this platoon occupying a high mountain ridge overlooking the imaginary line that separated friend from foe. Almost daily they experience enemy contact and Junger and Hetherington are right there in the middle of it, climbing the mountains, braving the enemy fire, and capturing the face of battle.

Their actions and journalistic integrity are in sharp contrast to the recent Rolling Stone article where freelance reporter Michael Hastings’ self-serving, cherry-picked off-the-record quotes from a Paris bar misrepresent the dedication and focus of General Stanley McChrystal and his team. Restrepo deserves twice the attention that the Rolling Stone article garnered yet I fear it will be lucky if it receives half, despite winning the Sundance Film Festival Best Documentary award.

Based on my experience in Afghanistan I have no doubt that Restrepo is 100% accurate. This film, though, is also art, capturing the range of human emotions soldiers face in combat. We get homemade video of Restrepo and Pemble-Belkin in Italy joking around with no admission or sign of the dangers that lay ahead. Suddenly, the film shows a patrol in the Korengal Valley hit by an improvised explosive device and the fresh platoon’s reaction to contact. Later warriors break down into tears when a scout, Staff Sergeant Rougle, is killed. Then there is palpable fear on each soldier’s face when they get the word that they are going to push further south into the valley where no Americans had ever ventured and where some Afghans still believed the Russians were occupying their country. The constant 1,000 yard stares on the faces of the Afghan elders will convince viewers that winning hearts and minds is harder than the granite walls of the mountains the men of 2nd platoon climb on their daily patrols.

By the end of the movie, you know the troops of 2nd platoon and you have witnessed the brutality of combat. The excitement, the waiting, the hard work, the stress relief, and the utter sacrifice all come crashing through in raw detail.

In the end, viewers will see the incredible challenges our troops face. Some may even question our purpose in Afghanistan. But no one can walk away from this distinctly apolitical film and question the bravery of our troops in combat.