lahirukperera A must watch if you're into war documentaries! Not much else I can say. Must watch! A must watch if you're into war documentaries! Not much else I can say. Must watch! A must watch if you're into war documentaries! Not much else I can say. Must watch! A must watch if you're into war documentaries! Not much else I can say. Must watch! A must watch if you're into war documentaries! Not much else I can say. Must watch!A must watch if you're into war documentaries! Not much else I can say. Must watch!A must watch if you're into war documentaries! Not much else I can say. Must watch!A must watch if you're into war documentaries! Not much else I can say. Must watch!A must watch if you're into war documentaries! Not much else I can say. Must watch!

Julius Redding 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.

worldbarrow The filmmakers weren't determined to make an anti-War film, but what they reveal is the most pathetic aspects of today's armed forces: the boyish, obnoxious young men who go off to war like summer camp in an era when battles are won or lost behind the lines. The media reported the occasional combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan like soldiers never die at war, and the boy scout soldiers in Restrepo are ceremoniously devoted to that presumption, memorializing their fallen comrade in a sandbag fort that accomplishes nothing except a handful of deaths: soldiers, civilians, Taliban rebels— does it really matter? The enlisted soldiers seem youthful and sometimes innocent, like we might actually find their deaths to be unfortunate, while the sated, ratlike face of the West Point lieutenant in charge of the outpost shows just how irresponsible today's Army might actually be. "Do I look like I f***ing care?" the lieutenant ejaculates in response to concerns of Afghani villagers. Later, some innocent children die in a misguided air raid. The lieutenant reflects to the camera that it's hard, you know, we're supposed to be fighting them, but we're not fighting them— them, you know, the Afghanis, the oppressed people who may or may not support the regime that may or may not have sponsored terrorist activity. The tragedy of the Bush wars was that the 9/11 attacks weren't undertaken by a nation against whom we should have declared war, but nothing less than two endless wars seemed sufficient for retaliation.

David Knight Restrepo is a brilliantly strange experience; on the one hand the harrowing documentary is powerful enough to chew your face off while you're watching it, on the other hand the bizarreness of the unfolding situations borderline on an incredibly dark parody.The suggestive editing threads a narrative through the insanity, and offers an underlining current of cynical gallows humour throughout. Meanwhile, amidst the bleak absurdity of war, we bond with these guys, these regular blokes, as they go about their lives, not exactly living but defiantly surviving in the deadliest valley in Afghanistan. This is a film that is well worth experiencing, as it will undoubtedly change your perspective on war and the lives of soldiers, far more effectively than any Hollywood effort. But be prepared to be pulled in a hundred different directions emotionally, as the film will throw you into intense, horrifying battles, comedic downtime, and heart wrenching moments of loss and pain, giving you a glimpse of the kind of disorientation the soldiers themselves experienced. There will be moments in the film where you simply can't believe that it's real, and moments where you can only laugh at the mind-boggling other-worldliness of it all, and yet it is one of the most real experiences it's possible to have in a safe, comfortable cinema.