I've seen a TON of war documentaries recently, I binged like a fiend on them for a week straight. This was one of the best, no doubt. The whole brotherhood theme that's always in flicks like this is so played out, but somehow these cats made it feel fresh. The firefights in this film were stupid intense, and you could feel the danger the filmmakers were in constantly. The cameraman and co-director Tim Hetherington was killed not long after this film came out in a bomb explosion. Heavy sh*t. Check out the flick about his life "Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington". This movie is intense.

George Santayana said it best, and a documentary like this one drives home the point: those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Brainwashed by first-person shooter video games and living in a schizophrenic society like this one, the young men in RESTREPO are shown learning the lessons soldiers have learned throughout history (see my first sentence). I watched this one yesterday- not long after seeing a segment of DEMOCRACY NOW! about the Rolling Stone cover story, "The A-Team Killings." Like the COLLATERAL MURDER video, the article in question brings to light atrocities committed by American soldiers. In RESTREPO, we see naive young men, armed to the teeth, waging war against poor people who live in mud and stone homes with corrugated tin roofs held up by wooden support beams. They rarely express doubts about what they're doing (until they see firsthand the Reality of being on the receiving end) and they remind me of the young soldiers I used to ferry to and from nearby military bases. I would invariably ask these soldiers WHY they enlisted and I always got the same three answers: 1) It was a job that PAID. 2) It provided training for when they got out of the military. 3) They got to "drive tanks and kill some sand n-----s." AND: every single one of them said that George W. Bush was- and I quote-: "An a--hole." (An update, for those who care: Israel has already bombed Syria, despite Obama's attempt(s) at Diplomacy.)

Restrepo (2010) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Filmmakers Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger spent time with a platoon of U.S. soldiers as they were placed on a tour in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan, which is considered one of the deadliest places you could go. Throughout the year the filmmakers were able to capture a wide range of events and emotions including the men losing friends, going into battles without the necessary tools and also having to deal with locals who many have families fighting with the Taliban. RESTREPO has a clear anti-war message that might rub some the wrong way but I think the majority of people, no matter what side of the debate they're on, should enjoy this documentary for a number of reasons but the biggest is the fact that it really gets you into a platoon and so close to the action and I'd say it does this more than any film before it. Yes, Hollywood has pumped out countless war pictures going with platoons on missions but this one here is real and the violence is real. I think some of the most dramatic scenes are of course the ones where the soldiers come under attack because it gives you a clear idea of the terror and confusion going on when someone is fired upon. There's one scene where a soldier is killed during a battle and just seeing what follows with his friends seeing him die is without a doubt very powerful. The most interesting footage comes during meetings between the soldiers and the actual people of this village, many of whom are upset with the death of their children, family or friends. In one of the strangest scenes, one Afghan man is upset because the soldiers killed his cow after it was caught up in one of their safety wires. RESTREPO is a must see simply because of the access the filmmakers had and of course the stories of the men who knowingly walk into dangerous and deadly battles each day.

I watched Restrepo last night. Its a documentary about some army platoon in Afghanistan. First they meet with the local populace, and the locals complain that civilians have been killed, and the commander is like, "Well, its time to move on from that. Get over it. We are starting over with a clean slate now." Then they steal one of the villager's cattle and eat it, and when the villagers complain about it being illegal, the commander accuses them of being Jihadi.Then they arrest some people, and the villagers complain about illegal detention, and the commander says, "I Don't F***ING CARE" Then the villagers finally act up, so the army calls in airstrikes and kill ten civilians including some children. Then one of the Americans get killed, and they cry like babies until they get bolstered up by a tough-talk session in which they promise to make the enemy pay. After that, they indiscriminately shoot everything that moves. At one point, they compare it to a video game or a hunting resort. Finally, they say "F*** this place" and go home. Very inspiring stuff, god bless America.Its basically about a bunch of uneducated moron dude-bros who are pretending that its war, when really they are just sitting on a hilltop harassing villagers.