Faucheaux -Restrepo

Nobody can win a war in Afghanistan, 
they just get tired and leave . 
Is that the message of the Oscar nominated documentary Restrepo? When the film ends, the fighting is still going on even though soldiers we’ve met get to come back home. Maybe our good intentions will never amount to a good outcome?

That could very well be one of the many underlying points that I believe this movie illustrates. The ambiguities of this film and the obscurity of its intended message can leave the viewer wondering exactly what they’ve just been told, and perhaps even confused about their own opinion of the United States’ war in Afghanistan. What the viewer does get, is a powerful movie that allows you to experience the life of a soldier in combat from a front row seat. We watch these men form a family, we see how they handle life in a foreign country amongst enemies and how they cope with the grief of losing a brother in the clutches of war. This emotional aspect of the film allows us to sympathize with the soldiers, to picture them as our brothers, uncles and friends that may be in their shoes. But there is still a doubt of why they are there, whether or not they should even be there. These young men were only boys when they boarded the plane that would take them to war. At the rate we’re going, people who weren’t even born when 9/11 occurred could be fighting this war.

One thing shown in the film that really vexed me was the way that the elders and the allies of the Korengal Valley were dealt with by some of the American soldiers. In one of his earliest interviews, Captain Dan Kearney tells us that he did absolutely no research on Korengal Valley because he wanted to go in there with an open mind, all he knew was that it was considered one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan. Throughout the course of the movie, he met often with the elders of the valley. His lack of knowledge of the history, the culture, and the language of the valley aided him none in his attempt to communicate and neither did his demeanor. His ignorance came off as arrogance, his arrogance came off as chauvinism, and he threw around more than a few “F” words. I don’t know about you, but I would consider this an inappropriate time to cuss. Because the people you’re speaking to don’t know the language, its all right to represent the United States that way? No disrespect to the captain, I am positive that he only did what he thought was best at the time and most likely did not realize that he was coming off as an inexperienced and callous man. The bottom line is, whoever was in the position which requires speaking to the locals and having meetings with the elders should have been trained as a diplomat and definitely should have learned the language.