Restrepo

[GEB]

Restrepo has now (just in the past week) been released on Video. It was also shown on the National Geographic Cable Chanel last Monday. I suspect that it will be shown again.It is absolutely outstanding.

 

This documentary was only released last summer and shown in limited areas throughout the US: mostly on or near military instalations. It tells the story of the Second Platoon, Battle Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade, during their 14-month deployment to the Korengal Valley. (Coincidentally the filming took place at the same time as the action that let to Sgt. Sal Guitna, also of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, later being recognized with the Medal of Honor. That particular action is a piece of the background information that influences some of the action in this film.)

 

http://restrepothemovie.com/

 

Gary Bachman

[MWalsh]

I watched it a couple time. It was a pretty "gritty" show - very up front, very raw. THAT is the sort of thing that ought to be made into an 8 part series... they no doubt had the footage to do it.

 

After watching the show, I will be watching the two books that were written based on the documentary. I believe that the deployment they filmed this on was actually 15 months long, so no way can a 2 hour show detail their 15 months, thus my desire to buy the books.

 

I would recommend this to show to anyone who has not been to Afghanistan, it made clear to me, well, at least as much as a 2 hour documentary can, what the combat troops over there face...

 

MW

[kriegsmodell]

I have not seen the movie but have it as a preorder on Amazon so I hope to be getting it any time. Mike, I have read both of the books that I think you are talking about War by Sebastian Junger (author of The Perfect Storm and others) is truly excellent. A great read that grabs you and is hard to put down. One of those books that you can literally finish in a single sitting. The second book is Infidel by Tim Hetherington. This book is primarily a pictorial of still photographs taken by Hetherington during the period that Restrepo was being filmed. I liked it very much as well. Different than a narrative but a great companion piece to War and the film that was co-directed by Junger and Hetherington. The trilogy will definitely be staples when OEF is looked back upon as history.

 

My thoughts only - Lance O. Adams .....

[OD MAN]

I would recommend this to show to anyone who has not been to Afghanistan, it made clear to me, well, at least as much as a 2 hour documentary can, what the combat troops over there face...

 

 

 

Couldn't agree more, it was extremely humbling to watch. Every American needs to see this to truly appreciate what our fighting men are anduring for US.

 

 

 

Justin

[Anders Heintz]

According to Netflix, it will be available as a "Watch Instantly" on 7 dec. Should be available on dvd as well on the 7th for those who don't like to stream movies on their computers. Can't wait to see it.

[Pfc-Grunt]

In all honesty, I watched it, thought it was boring and would not watch it again.

[Nkomo]

Bought it this morning. One of the best documentaries I've ever watched.

[Jeeperz83]

I also watched this and was moved by the experience. One of the best (and only) documentaries I've seen about the war in Afghanistan. It's important to remember that it's not about the film quality or narration, but the young soldiers who are fighting and dying in a foriegn and hostile land. All Americans should see this.

 

Also check out Peter Engel's "Tip of the Spear", a series about a 1st Divison unit "Viper Company" fighting in the Korengal. I believe they took over right after the 173rd BCT rotated home.

[shrapneldude]

It's on the netflix online if anyone has that. There's also a lot of other great war movies on the netflix. Watching it shortly.

[tsellati]

Just watched the documentary Restrepo through Netflix. While I was really moved by the movie and found it very interesting and informative I do have a comment I would like those forum members with military experience to respond to.

 

Now, let me preface my comment by saying that I am a civilian with a capital "C", but, it struck me as odd that the troops firing a variety of weapons at Taliban insurgents appeared to be doing so in a very helter skelter fashion. Seemed less like aimed fire and more like suppressive fire, but, I did not get the sense that the insurgents were ever so close to warrant non-aimed firing.

 

Am I totally 'wet behind the ears' here?

 

Tim

[shrapneldude]

Just watched the documentary Restrepo through Netflix. While I was really moved by the movie and found it very interesting and informative I do have a comment I would like those forum members with military experience to respond to.

 

Now, let me preface my comment by saying that I am a civilian with a capital "C", but, it struck me as odd that the troops firing a variety of weapons at Taliban insurgents appeared to be doing so in a very helter skelter fashion. Seemed less like aimed fire and more like suppressive fire, but, I did not get the sense that the insurgents were ever so close to warrant non-aimed firing.

 

Am I totally 'wet behind the ears' here?

 

Tim

 

The editing on the show was a bit deceptive (though not intentional) in that it showed the chaotic moments, and the heart wrenching moments, and then some of the "down time" moments, but none of the in-between stuff when everything was well controlled. Remember he condensed an entire 18 month combat tour into 2 hours of dramatic television.

 

The first few seconds of a firefight make for good TV, but looks bad tactically. The first reaction they had was to react and shoot towards anything that looked bad. Then they scanned for targets and aimed more accurately. The tiny (and I stress TINY) bit of experience I have in such situations is the same -- things go absolutely nutty in the first few seconds, you don't know where to aim but your body is telling you to do something and quick! After that quick jolt passes it's much more controlled.

[Jack's Son]

-- things go absolutely nutty in the first few seconds, you don't know where to aim but your body is telling you to do something and quick! After that quick jolt passes it's much more controlled.

Shrap,

Your comments make perfect sense (at least to me). Much like Tim, I've never had to face the same situation, so I would be the last to know.

Thank you!! :thumbsup:

JS

[tsakers85]

I watched this just last night and found it do be very well done.

[RelicHunter99]

I put this on my Netflix streaming queue just the other night. Will definitely be watching it soon.

[jkash23686]

Saw this movie on NatGeo when they aired it. I thought it was a great movie.

[Manchu Warrior]

Watched it last night and I would be lying if I said it did not bring tears to my eyes. Great stuff!

[kammo-man]

This is war .

[Jonesy]

Those guys got away with some good stuff. Things like not wearing their blouses under their vests because they were in a pretty remote location with no 'real' leadership to bug them.

 

I really enjoyed seeing the little things like that. It was a really well done movie. I plan to watch it again this weekend.

[snake36bravo]

Watched this with my father, a Vietnam vet, over the holidays. Then we found out prior to New Years my sister will be going over this year to Afghanistan marking her fourth deployment. He told me often how if this was Vietnam they would have just leveled those villages and how similar the situation is to what they experienced. His ROE was definitely different than what we have today.

 

As a grunt this one hit home and I too had misty eyes and a very hollow feeling after watching it. To see just how affected these guys are by what they went through especially the Sgt who had to take a moment, 1000 yard stare and just barely hanging on, was tough. My dad commented on them and basically just said they were screwed for life. I kind of realized that already. He just echoed much of what I was thinking.

 

I can understand this was edited, that there will be a slant to it but that doesn't take away from the absolutely moronic things you see in this documentary. Why do you go to sleep with rotating guard shifts like your back home on some FTX when you're actually in enemy territory knowing your being tracked by the Taliban who are moving in on you but you dont know where they are? Why build a base in a Valley whose surrounding peaks the enemy owns? Is it just me or was it just plain friggin common sense for that Captain to build on OP out on that finger to watch for enemy movement in the Valley? and why was he the first one with a brain to do so? I was just so pissed off to no end knowing the outcome in the Korengal.

 

Here is what I took away from it. We get hit, we fire back, we call in air support, we sit tight, we go back to what we were doing, and eventually we leave.

 

I guess I just haven't really gotten over being pissed after watching this. I'm still foaming at the mouth.

[VeeVee]

There are varying reactions to this documentary. Some of my fragmented reactions:

 

Great HD quality videos.

 

I wish the documentary was longer. I wanted to see more.

 

Why was there not much about events surrounding Juan Restrepo becoming a casualty? All of a sudden they had built an outpost named after him because he was KIA? Oh really, what happened? I wish there were more background footage surrounding the events that led to Restrepo's being a casualty. Just to establish the emotional impact of their outpost (probably just an editing issue).

 

The part where they were ambushed and sustained a KIA, was pretty gritty with the anguish and

 

Their tactical situation seemed perfect for having sniper teams. There were no mentions of them. Maybe there were none but it sure looked like they needed sniper teams the whole time they were deployed.

 

I never liked ACU camo gear and never bought anything ACU. Now it makes me want to collect them.

 

Restrepo is worth seeing no matter what criticisms there are of it. We owe it to the men.

 

Afhganistan is beautiful country.

[TLHSS]

I've watched it twice on Nat Geo.

 

I've hesitated to post a comment, but I did have a question that's bothered me for weeks ...

 

The thing that haunted me was the similarities between this combat situation, and what I remember as a kid on the nightly news during Vietnam.

 

Hearing things such as "winning hearts and minds" .... selling jobs to folks who looked to be in there 70's and never have worked a "job" in their lives .... not being able to tell the enemy from "friendlies" .... regreting the bombing of villages because you didn't know how many women and kids were going to be killed ... and a population that seems to care very little about you being there.

 

Please keep in mind this takes nothing away from the brave acts of the folks that are fighting, and the sacrifices they are making. Most of these kids (and they are kids) will never be the same.

 

But I had to ask myself after seeing this ... and it pained me to even ask the question ... what is the "end game" in this conflict, and can it be "won"?

 

Maybe I was uneducated before seeing this, but if this one of my kids, I guess I'd have to ask the question "why" after seeing this.

 

This posting is not meant to offend ... it's just a question for those better educated in the current situation than I am, and I'm willing to learn the "whys".

 

Thanks ... Tim

[Shawn H]

I just watched this on TV last week and after watching it ran out and bought the Blu-ray disc the next day. The disc adds some deleted scenes, further interviews with the men of the 173rd and some updates as to where they are now. Overall the documentary was very good and gave a really good insight as to what we do not see. I definately recommend watching this.

 

-Shawn

[Shawn H]

DOUBLE POST...................

[willysmb44]

I couldn't get over the Captain holding court with the locals like some middle ages lord dealing with his serfs. I could only think of the arrogance that the locals surely would have recognized as well as the apparent lack of any tactics. I'm sure that was just editing, but it looked to me like their op orders only read: "Movement to contact against enemy of undetermined location and strength".

[nuke41]

I saw the movie and read the book also. I also couldn’t make heads or tails out of the tactics being used by the 173rd. It did look like nothing more than contact by fire; let’s go walk around the mountains until the enemy finds us, then hope for the best.

 

I know I’m old fashioned compared to the youth of today, but I didn’t approve of the apparent lack of standards up at the outpost, it didn’t seem there was any adult leadership present and it had all sort of gone “Lord of the flies”.

 

The book talks about them beating on each other and when they got a new Lt they jumped on him and starting hitting him as some sort of rite of passage. Where in the hell were the NCOs and SNCOs?

 

At the end it talked about how most of them had problems adapting back to garrison life and that many didn’t fare well in the Army after they returned to Italy. Letting standards slip to such a huge degree while deployed isn’t doing them any favor because it just makes the post-combat readjustment all the more difficult. I passed the book onto my ROTC cadet son to read, mostly as a “how not to” guide.