Collegiate Times

"Restrepo,” an award-winning documentary now playing at the Lyric theater, proves to be an eye-opener.

Winner of the 2010 grand jury prize for best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, Restrepo follows photographer Tim Hetherington and journalist Sebastian Junger during their year reporting on Marines in Afghanistan’s Korangal valley.

The majority of the film follows the marines of Second Platoon, B Company, Second Battallion, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team as they build and defend Outpost Restrepo and attempt to root out the Taliban in Afghanistan while building relations with locals.

The film and outpost get their name, Restrepo, from Pvt. First Class Juan S. Restrepo, a medic in the platoon who was killed earlier in the campaign after being shot twice in the neck.

“Restrepo” plunges the audience head-first into the reality of war. The opening scene of the documentary is a first-person view of an IED attack and ambush by Taliban forces. There is no narrative, instead the filmmakers opt to show every day life in a first-person view.

Audiences will love “Restrepo” for its reality. In a world where every aspect of the war on terror is analyzed, digested, refined and regurgitated by news anchors and political pundits, “Restrepo” presents only facts. The film doesn’t try to convince viewers one way or another on the politics surrounding the war.

It simply conveys one message: War is hell.

And hell it is for the marines of the Second Platoon. They happen to have the misfortune of being sent to what is currently most dangerous location on Earth, according to CNN.

The residents of OP Restrepo take more enemy fire than any other unit in the war.

One soldier remarked about an attack, “Holy shit. Did everybody in the entire valley come to fight?” Another commented about their location, “The road ends at the Korangal outpost, and where the road ends, the Taliban begins.”

The Taliban is an omnipresent threat for the Marines, especially during their forays into local villages to gather intelligence and foster understanding between the U.S. and native Afghans.

The struggle with locals defines part of the film. It shows, firsthand, why U.S. forces are having trouble securing stability for the war-torn country. Many of the locals refuse to share information with the marines because they fear repercussion from the Taliban.

Another roadblock is depicted in the Afghans’ reluctance to trust Americans based on past transgressions. In one exchange, the Marines are forced to shoot a cow that had become tangled in their concertina wire (a special type of barbed or razor wire) and was injured. The owner of the cow was offered an equivalent value of supplies, like sugar and grain, but he demands money. Small exchanges like these hang up the process, prevent cooperation and produce negative effects, because the U.S. can’t help build roads and promote commerce as a way of stabilizing war-torn areas.

“Restrepo” will appeal to anyone who wants an insider view on one of the most dangerous locations in the war in Afghanistan. It shows the emotional gamut that Marines face, everything from adversity to triumph, and even loss of life. It accomplishes this by avoiding the preachy, political messages favored by most modern documentary makers, which makes it a tool of education rather than indoctrination.

“Restrepo” will be shown at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. daily at the Lyric through Thursday, Sept. 16.

A version of this article appeared in the Sep 14 issue of the Collegiate Times.