Restrepo: Is this the greatest war film ever?

[n2doc]

A documentary about a platoon of US soldiers in Afghanistan is a haunting depiction of life on the front line

By Jonathan Owen and Matthew Bell

An exploding roadside bomb sends panic through a routine patrol. A handsome and popular soldier is shot dead in a volley of gunfire. His friend collapses in sobs on hearing the news, and comrades restrain him from rushing to the body. Later, smoking and joking, half-naked tattooed soldiers casually fire rounds of ammo into a dry Afghan valley. They dance and embrace to the Sam Fox classic "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)". No wonder they're calling Restrepo one of the best portrayals of war ever.

It is released in British cinemas this weekend, but the critics have already given it the thumbs up: it scooped the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and is being tipped to win best documentary at next year's Oscars. It is Film of the Week in the latest London issue of Time Out, and on the BBC's Kermode and Mayo Film Review show, and has scored an unusually high 97 per cent positive rating on RottenTomatoes.com, considered a barometer for critical opinion.

The film's haunting depiction of life – and death – on the front line brings something new to a century of war and cinema. The difference is that this is fact, not fiction. No script. No acting. No props. Real blood, real bodies. Until the end you don't know which soldiers survive. It is not an easy film to watch, much less forget.

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http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/restrepo-is-this-the-greatest-war-film-ever-2102421.html

[elocs]

1. Haven't seen it yet, but my godson went to the Korengal Vally in July 2007.

I did read the articles in Vanity Fair by Hetherington about it back then. For the year my godson was in the Korengal Valley I rarely read anything about it. He got there shortly after that forward operating base was overrun and those troops killed.