Review: 'Restrepo' a hard-hitting documentary from most dangerous place on earth

“Afghanistan” is a word on the news, debated in terms of our foreign policy. Almost an abstraction.

Nobody thinks about foreign policy in “Restrepo,” a documentary shot during the 15 months an American company fought there, under almost daily fire. They were in the Korangal Valley, described on CNN as “the most dangerous place in the world.”

It is also one of the most desolate, even in the arid land of Afghanistan. It is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, and in the movie, at least, the troops only actually ever see one Taliban fighter — and the man who saw him thought it was the last sight he would ever see.

The Taliban are an elusive presence, moving freely through the landscape and population, and there is one point when the company is ambushed and takes fire from 360 degrees. That all of them were not killed seems surprising. The film is named after the first of their number to die, a 20-year-old medic, Pfc. Juan S. Restrepo.

Battle Company is led by Capt. Dan Kearney, whose plan is to establish an outpost at a key point on Taliban battle routes. The men occupy the position at night and start digging in, using earth to build fortifications. They catch the enemy off-guard.

The successful maintenance of Outpost Restrepo turns the tide of war in the hostile valley and frightens the Taliban. But the hearts and minds of the locals remain an uncharted terrain.

There are many firefights in the film, but they all share one feature: We never see the enemy, and we never see the American targets.

This is hard, hard duty. A 15-month tour. Our admiration for these men grows. There is the sense they’re fighting for one another more than for ideology.

The movie was filmed at great personal risk by war photographer Tim Hetherington and author Sebastian Junger. It raises for me an obvious question: How can this war possibly be won? At the end, a title tells us U.S. troops withdrew from the Korangal Valley and, therefore, Outpost Restrepo in 2010.

RESTREPO

Directors: Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger

Theater: Kimball’s

Rated: R (for language throughout, including some descriptions of violence)

Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes

Grade: A

LOCAL CONNECTION

The Korengal Valley, known to soldiers as the Valley of Death, was under the watch of Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division during its yearlong tour that ended in June.

A single company — Company B, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment — was stationed at Korengal Outpost and the tiny observation posts that surround it, including Restrepo, though the events depicted in the film occurred before Fort Carson soldiers arrived. Two Fort Carson soldiers died in the area.

The soldiers withdrew from the outposts and moved to more populated areas of the Pech River Valley in mid-April.

— LANCE BENZEL