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Touches You

Simply A Masterpiece

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I fear no evil. Welcome to the suck! Directed by American journalist Sebastian Junger, this documentary tells the story of American troops stationed in the Korengal Valley in northeastern Afghanistan during the Afghan War of the early 21th century. At the time of this film was made, Korengal Valley was one of the most deadly active combat zone in U.S military history. Filmed during the 2007/2008 years of the War in Afghanistan. The film takes a fly-on-the-wall approach, by showing how the men of Battle Company 2nd of the 503rd Infantry Regiment 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team run the area, as they try to negotiations with the local people, construction of an advanced outpost, as well as the challenges and intermittent firefights they face. Interspersed between stock footage of action, are interviews with the soldiers themselves as they look back on what they did right and wrong, and how it affected them. The emotional distress that the soldiers went, through is very haunting. It's really hard to watch them, talk about certain mission, such as Operation Rock Avalanche, due to its tragic consequences. The movie use close up, during the interviews, so well, that you can see the expressions on their faces, not realizing or understanding how they're going to live with this experience for the rest of their lives. Nothing is "candy coated". Just pure, raw energy, bravery, and emotion. While, the combat footage doesn't show, any of the enemy. You can really, tell, how, their unseen presence, affect the soldiers, there. They hardly any down time, in the beginning. I'm awe-inspired by their courage under fire, even if, most of the time, they shooting bullets at ghosts. However, there were some funny parts to lighten up the film toward the middle and the end. The exchange between the elders of the village and the soldiers, about a shot cow was somewhat humorous to witness. Why in the living hell, would the captain think that the locals would take a small bag of rice and beans, over steak, would work!? It's really unbelievable funny, how naïve, the captain is. However, the scene where the troops are celebrating on being alive, dancing to Samantha Fox's song, "Touch me" was fun to watch. Still, the movie's shaking cam is a bit of a headache to watch. You can barely figure out, what's going on and to whom, half the time. There are just way too many men for this documentary to cover. I really didn't to know, most of them, that well. It doesn't help that the movie footage is full of military jargon and acronyms. There is a lack of subtlety within the language. It doesn't help, that some of the documentary footage, makes, the morals of the soldiers, somewhat look questionable. Lots of over-violent aggressive masculine being shown here, rather than winning the hearts & minds heroics. It's also weird to see, that most of them, have little to no idea, why they're fighting here. The movie doesn't once, address their views of the war. They never address, if their actions, are doing good or not. Other things, that the film fails to talk about, is the legal basis of their occupation like actions. In truth, the army has little to no legal right to order the Afghan citizens around. It's the job of the local police. The movie shows great examples of the loss of communications, between the local tribes and those of the U.S military. You really do, see, the villagers' perspective, in safety when it comes to protecting their families and clan members. From their point of view, the presence of the U.S. military hasn't made their lives more secure. Quite the opposite; their presence endangers them, and no amount of money from the military can change, their opinion on it. It a sign of really bad leadership, when the only way, to solve a problem is to toss money at it. You really do see the lack of cultural sensitivity and empathy within the soldiers. Never once, did the documentary, show the soldiers trying to understand, Afghan culture and why they live, the way, they do. It also hurts to see, the soldiers rarely showing empathy when it comes to accidentally innocent civilians. You would think, they would be more apologetic. Things like that, could be, our undoing there, if we don't address them. In the end, U.S. military did had pulls out of the Korengal Valley, because fail to win the heart & minds of the locals. Still, it's not too late for, building relationship with the whole country. Overall: While, some critics see this film as an American jingoism propaganda. Others see it as an objective movie about the war in Afghanistan. In my opinion, it's both, anti-war and patriotic. It's a gritty depiction of the (sur) realities of modern warfare. A must-watch.

George Santayana said it best, and a documentary like this one drives home the point: those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Brainwashed by first-person shooter video games and living in a schizophrenic society like this one, the young men in RESTREPO are shown learning the lessons soldiers have learned throughout history (see my first sentence). I watched this one yesterday- not long after seeing a segment of DEMOCRACY NOW! about the Rolling Stone cover story, "The A-Team Killings." Like the COLLATERAL MURDER video, the article in question brings to light atrocities committed by American soldiers. In RESTREPO, we see naive young men, armed to the teeth, waging war against poor people who live in mud and stone homes with corrugated tin roofs held up by wooden support beams. They rarely express doubts about what they're doing (until they see firsthand the Reality of being on the receiving end) and they remind me of the young soldiers I used to ferry to and from nearby military bases. I would invariably ask these soldiers WHY they enlisted and I always got the same three answers: 1) It was a job that PAID. 2) It provided training for when they got out of the military. 3) They got to "drive tanks and kill some sand n-----s." AND: every single one of them said that George W. Bush was- and I quote-: "An a--hole." (An update, for those who care: Israel has already bombed Syria, despite Obama's attempt(s) at Diplomacy.)

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.

I watched Restrepo last night. Its a documentary about some army platoon in Afghanistan. First they meet with the local populace, and the locals complain that civilians have been killed, and the commander is like, "Well, its time to move on from that. Get over it. We are starting over with a clean slate now." Then they steal one of the villager's cattle and eat it, and when the villagers complain about it being illegal, the commander accuses them of being Jihadi.Then they arrest some people, and the villagers complain about illegal detention, and the commander says, "I Don't F***ING CARE" Then the villagers finally act up, so the army calls in airstrikes and kill ten civilians including some children. Then one of the Americans get killed, and they cry like babies until they get bolstered up by a tough-talk session in which they promise to make the enemy pay. After that, they indiscriminately shoot everything that moves. At one point, they compare it to a video game or a hunting resort. Finally, they say "F*** this place" and go home. Very inspiring stuff, god bless America.Its basically about a bunch of uneducated moron dude-bros who are pretending that its war, when really they are just sitting on a hilltop harassing villagers.