Sundance 2010: Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger's RESTREPO

Sundance tried something different this year.  Instead of having an opening night film, they screened a narrative, a documentary and a short in Park City.  The narrative, which turned out to be documentary/narrative/animation hybrid, was HOWL from doc veterans (and Oscar winners) Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman screened at the 1300-seat Eccles Theater.

Later Thursday night, the Eccles screened the first documentary of 2010, Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's intimate look at soldiers in Afghanistan, RESTREPO.  Hetherington is a noted photographer and worked on Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern's THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK.  Junger is known for his reportage and for writing "The Perfect Storm" and "Fire".

Oscar nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, at Sundance with their new film 12TH AND DELAWARE, offered their thoughts on the screening for Politics Daily:

"We sat with about 1,000 other filmgoers to watch RESTREPO, an action-packed and highly alarming documentary about a platoon of American soldiers fighting in the violent Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. The film also reminded (us) that certain stories are better suited to nonfiction. The visceral impact of the young soldiers -- these real, unscripted boys trying to be brave but mostly just trying to stay alive -- is hard to describe. But without being overly didactic or ideological, the movie raises important questions about our involvement in Afghanistan, and was a thought-provoking (and non-star-&*$!ing) way to open Sundance 2010."

IFC's Alison Willmore draws comparisons to Kathryn Bigelow's current award favorite:

"Pointing out that RESTREPO is a nonfiction companion to THE HURT LOCKER is unavoidable -- there are direct echoes in the way the men interact, in the generally apolitical tone, in the microfocus and structuring around timeframe instead of narrative arc, in the observation made by one man that getting shot at is an incomparable high. But I was also reminded of Kimberly Peirce's muddier, emotionally anguished "Stop-Loss," in terms of the tenderness with which the soldiers are treated, and in the portrayal of their sense of brotherhood. The film peppers footage taken during the year with more intimate interviews with some of them afterward, boys with baby faces and tough-guy tattoos who alternate between looking world-weary and painfully young. That tenderness, I think, is partially a natural outgrowth of being embedded, and part of the reason embedding exists. How can you live with a group of people, unified under the threat of constant danger, without feeling like you're invested, one of them, part of the team?"

Writing at The Wrap, Eric Kohn called the film remarkable and took the HURT LOCKER comparison a step further:

"Directors Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger refuse political or militant readings of their subjects, aiming instead for an emotional reality and slow-burning temporal groove that suggests a real life version of THE HURT LOCKER.

Only, it's more than that -- as the soldiers construct a fort in the middle of the wilderness named for their fallen colleague, the movie turns into a meditation on contemporary wartime coping mechanisms. In that sense, it's an unprecedented work of art and left the room appropriately stunned."

The AV Club's Noel Murray gives the film an A-:

"RESTREPO jumps back-and-forth between the battle scenes, the scenes of the unit trying to enjoy their rare downtime, and interviews with the men months after their tour was over. (The interviews shot so close that you can count every pimple on these young men’s faces.) It’s an unsentimental but admiring look at a soldier’s life, shot in one of the deadliest theaters of combat that’s ever existed. Don’t expect more than a token consideration of the Afghani point-of-view; though Junger and Hetherington make it clear that the Americans are pissing people off in the region as much as they’re winning hearts and minds, they also sympathize with the frustration of soldiers who see their best friends die and get no thanks in return. Restrepo can be tedious at times and nerve-wracking at others, but then why shouldn’t it be? That’s exactly what Junger and Hetherington saw on the frontlines, and that’s what they show to us, with very little filter."

The Huffington Post's Stewart Nusbaumer calls the film "a profoundly intimate record of a platoon in one of the most dangerous locations in Afghanistan":

"This documentary has everything -- fire fights, silence, drag-butt humping up and down mountains, intense camaraderie, crushing boredom, near paralyzing fear, horsing around in the all male environment, anguish, and of course death. All delivered to you right in your face.

Your mind is not, however, tugged along a narrow story line to some foregone conclusion. Not a World War II movie, Restepro gives you the full range of war, the ups and downs and the sideways of war that allow you to assemble the pieces for your own conclusion."

Often contrary New York Post critic Kyle Smith offfers a second opinion:

"(T)here have been several Iraq documentaries that have shown us battle scenes, I.E.D. explosions, evident combat-induced mental strain and door-to-door fighting and ambushes, so these images aren't as shocking as they were five years ago. There are also some playful scenes of soldiers off-duty, telling dirty jokes, having weird conversations to kill time and dancing around. But, again, similar stuff has appeared in many other movies, both documentaries and features. "Restrepo" is powerful and effective and respectful to the troops (many of today's war documentaries are irritatinly edited in such a way as to cajole the audience into an antiwar stance) and it gives a convincing sense of the immense difficulties of fighting a guerilla war in which you can never be sure whether the villager you're talking to is in league with your enemy. But there's nothing very new about this film."

Au contraire, says indieWIRE's Anne Thompson:

"You’ve never seen fighting like this. Ever. The film is set to air on National Geographic Channel in the fall. This all-too-timely doc should be seen in theaters; it makes one wonder how effective an outside fighting force could ever be in Afghanistan. The army withdrew from the Korengar Valley, finally, which took the lives of 50 fighters."

Comments

[Victor3]

PLEASE IMMEDIATELY REMOVE THE MISINFORMING COMMENT ABOVE. THE ARMY HAS NOT WITHDRAWN FROM THE KORENGAL VALLEY.

REFERENCE:
indieWIRE's Anne Thompson:

"You’ve never seen fighting like this. Ever. The film is set to air on National Geographic Channel in the fall. This all-too-timely doc should be seen in theaters; it makes one wonder how effective an outside fighting force could ever be in Afghanistan.

The army withdrew from the Korengar Valley, finally, which took the lives of 50 fighters."

[Victor3]

Victor3: Just received an email / correction from indieWIRE's Anne Thompson in response to the REDACT AND REMOVE request.
Her answer:+++++Talked to Junger and cleared up my misunderstanding of what he said at conference and will fix. I get it now. You are right. +++++
Victor3: My thanks to Anne for her open correction. I will leave further apologies to her for those she may have offended.