February 12, 2011: Restrepo
Restrepo, nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar, is about a US platoon in Afghanistan and the effort they expend to capture and retain a particular hill deep within the enemy territory in that country. I can’t tell what point the film is trying to make, but the one it makes to me is that war continues to be a useless waste of untold quantities of human and material resources.
We begin with a new captain coming on, as the previous one completed his 15 month deployment to this area which is acknowledged as the most dangerous of all US-occupied territories. The new captain proudly says that he’ll be a change from the previous insensitive boss, but it quickly becomes clear that even this new guy doesn’t respect the local population as people with lives and opinions and rights. During the film, a group moves from the safe stronghold they have, a quarter-mile ahead to a different hill, and they lay down roots there amid constant and violent battles with the locals. The soldiers, who are sensitive upon reflection in interviews after their deployment, are the absolute stereotypical arrogant and macho guys, breaking into spontaneous wrestling matches and always posturing even though they are really just scared kids from suburban and farming communities all over the US. They are storming through a foreign country, doing their tiny little piece, without understanding what they are doing as part of the overall effort. It’s a distressing example of American arrogance, with the new outpost being named Restrepo after one of the men they lost earlier, and they want to take their revenge on the local population who killed their man, thus guaranteeing the never-ending cycle of violence. Restrepo is another in a long line of documentaries which clearly illustrate the futility and senseless waste of war, but it doesn’t seem to have any impact on how this world is run.
Disheartening picture of kids following orders.
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