Restrepo

this is a documentary about an Army infantry battalion in Afghanistan. if anyone was curoius as to what kind of lifestyle that is, this documentary will give you a good idea.

http://restrepothemovie.com/

Thanks Rivera. That documentary looks to be quite a highly rated. You would know if it captures some of the reality of the war. I like what the director had to say in another clip when he asked the audience to set aside politics for 90 minutes to experience emotionally what soldiers are going through out there and how valuable such understanding will be in assisting them to reintigrate into society. Will definitely check it out.

looking forward to this one too.

This is available in the netflix instant stream; I just noticed it today.

Restrepo that is, not the second video Rivera posted.

Restrepo was pretty intense. Makes you feel for the guys over there, period.

i just watched this tonight, and i highly recommend it.


it seemed much more intense than Restrepo, and i'm not just saying that because i'm a Marine who fought in Helmand Province last year.

I thought that War, the book that Sebastian Junger wrote about his time filming in Afghanistan was much better than Restrepo. Restrepo was a bit all over the place and lacked narrative where as War allows the reader to get a much better idea of what happened and in what order. You'll also find if you read the book that there's a lot that Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington filmed that didn't make it in to the film.

I've seen The Battle for Marjah (it was called something else in the UK) and I thought it got across what was happening in Afghanistan and the problems faced much better than Restrepo.

I just watched it the other day, it was brilliant.

Am watching The Battle for Marjah. Amazing work.

Glad to see the hard work that the troops are doing is being recognized, finally.

I concur however even seeing it doesn't even come close to what they go through. Very intense indeed.

I saw the movie and thought, "shit, I know you've got a job to do, but what difference is it going to make, it thirty years that valley is going to be exactly the same as it was thirty years ago." Still, if those are the cards you've been dealt then I guess you've got to play em, even if all you've got is a shitty hand.

I honestly felt the culture gap was never quite bridged between the soldiers and the local population. During the shura meetings, neither party ever really seemed to respond to one another's feedback, its like they just settled with putting up with one another while once in a while random skirmishes would took place, and then everyone would just pretended it was always someone else doing the fighting. Maybe it was, but you just never really knew. Hell, they were already fighting each other before we got there, we just just a distracting nuisance that got in the way of the tribal rivalries that have probably been going on for hundreds of years.

When the plan to go root out the enemy in the valley went down, I just knew it was going to end badly. Also, I think there may have been some bad karma with the cow getting killed, I'm sure they literally got flak for that SNAFU. Really sad when Restrepo died, it's too bad considering the whole valley has been left to the tribes, I'm sure things are pretty much the same now as they ever were...

It kind of reminds me of Vietnam in the sense that some soldiers honestly wanted to win the hearts and minds of the people, but couldn't understand why it just couldn't work. Patrols would enter the hamlets near their forward operating bases and they'd be spurned by the wary locals who've just had the war brought to their doorstep. It's amazing that we still think we can just walk into one of the most remote corners of the world and expect things to be any different, to them we're nothing more than aliens. Sure you can learn how to make friends, but in the process, you'll probably end up with twice as many enemies. (See Laos, Cambodia, etc.) Fast forward to the present and add religious ideology into the mix (on top of the fractious and dynamic politics of the region) and you've got nothing but shit sandwich. I don't know how you'd even begin to fight this kind of war much less figure out how to win it, my guess is that no one else has a very clear idea how to do that either.

here are some other ones about the Sangin District, considered to be the most dangerous district in Helman Province today.






i also recomend PBS Frontline: Obama's War.

restrepo was about my former unit the mighty 173rd...It sucked i left the unit in 08 but i was happy to be among its lineage...the documentary was well shot ....i made a thread about it in film club...I was a bit disappointed it didn't win anything this year at the Oscars but ohh well

Restrepo director killed in Libya.

Sad news.

Very sad indeed.

Winning this war is easy. I, as an infantryman currently deployed with the 10th mountain division, get to do it every day. We move into enemy territory, destroy the enemy, and help the locals. It is as simple as supporting the population, protecting them from the thuggish oppression of the Taliban who pretend to protect them, then train the national police and army how to take over when we leave.

Religion has nothing to do with it. We know how to fight this war, and we are winning it...

Oh, and Restrepo was pretty good. Sucks for the 173rd from the Kornegal Valley. My heart goes out to the families of the fallen. Some of the film seems overacted...I think guys knew they were just on camera too much. But it really did touch a lot on what kinda actually goes on during a war. Everyone's mileage will vary during different deployments and in different areas though.

A real loss.

Thank you for posting these documentaries. More people need to be aware of what really happens out there. R.I.P. to all the lives lost during war.