Oh my God this place is a shit-hole. I'm gonna die here.
No, that's not a freshman walking into a South Green dorm on move-in weekend.
It's the first impressions of an American soldier regarding Afghanistan's Korangal Valley, where he and the rest of his company will be deployed for the next 15 months. It sounds like he's being overly dramatic. Ninety minutes later, though, you realize he might have been too modest.
The Korangal, described by CNN as the most dangerous place on Earth, is the backdrop for Restrepo, an unrestrained soldiers' view of the war in Afghanistan, shot with handhelds by Vanity Fair reporter Sebastian Junger and his cameraman Tim Hetherington.
Watching the footage captured by the two, the Korangal more than lives up to its reputation.
Most of the film takes place at OP (out-post) Restrepo, named after Juan Restrepo, one of the first of the company to die. The spearhead of the army's efforts against the Taliban in the Korangal, the soldiers stationed at the OP are constantly on the defensive against a mostly invisible enemy that roams freely in the harsh terrain and among the local population.
Remarkably, only one member of the company ever sees a Taliban fighter firsthand: one who is pointing a rocket-propelled grenade at him from 40 feet away.
But what sets Restrepo apart is what you do see. Junger and Hetherington don't hold back, they're right there through the firefights, every narrow miss (and sometimes hit) and deserve a tremendous amount of credit if only for the daring, or insanity, they display to record such absorbing scenes.
The raw footage is interspersed with interviews with the surviving members of the company. Together they provide forceful insights, with acute emotions expressed in eerily tranquil voices. One soldier says he never will forget a comrade lying dead in the grass because it makes him appreciate what he has.
Restrepo isn't for everyone, but it also isn't a movie to skip just because it's about soldiers and war, either. To sound pretentious: it's learning about a terrifying human experience - young men, not much older than the average Ohio University student, going through a real life Call of Duty not playing it on Xbox.
And that's what makes a well-done documentary like Restrepo so compelling on screen - these soldiers are real people, not ones who go back to trailers when they hear cut.
Cameron Dunbar is a sophomore studying journalism. He needs all the help he can get, so send him you favorite COD cheats at cd211209@ohiou.edu.
