Posted By Bouhammer on July 11, 2010

The other night I had the fortunate ability to watch a special screening of the movie, RESTREPO. In fact this site, Bouhammer.com was a presenter of the movie and I am extremely proud to have been involved with a screening that had a standing-room only crown of over 300 people.

The movie was shown at the New York State Museum’s Huxley Theater in downtown Albany, NY. I expected somewhere around maybe 150 to show up if we were lucky. I was humbled and amazed at the turnout which had to be close to 325 people. In fact when I first got to the museum, our contact there showed me the overflow area in case the theater seating of 220 was maxed out. I joked that I am sure we would not need overflow but it is always good to have a backup plan.

A little while later, but before the people started showing up, I found out all the local media in the Albany, NY area had been pushing the movie showing all day. They did not inform people to RSVP so we really had no idea how many would show up. I believe this was why we had so many show up, which was really a great thing.

The night started with Dr. Siegfried, the Director of the museum introducing me as the presenter of the film and moderator of the Q&A time afterwards. I then thanked everyone for being present on behalf of all the sponsors plus on behalf of bouhammer.com. We then got right into the showing.

The movie was simply amazing. It has the same Cinema Verti style that Scott Kesterson’s “At War” has. The movie serves as a view through the soldier’s eyes of life in the most remote and dangerous place in Afghanistan during 2007-2008. It showed not only the bad, but also some of what could only be classified as the good of life in a remote outpost dug into the side of a hill.

The name comes from the first soldier killed in 2nd Platoon, Battle Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team during that deployment. It was “Doc” Restrepo, the platoon medic. In all honesty I think the name really comes from the outpost which was built during the deployment that was named after Doc Restrepo. That outpost is where 2nd platoon took up residence. It was the most crude living conditions that one could have while serving in the most technology advanced army of one of the most wealthiest nations in the world. No TV, No phones, No internet, nothing as far as connection with the outside world except for military radios and hand-written letters.

It is that type of austere life that the viewer gets to witness in all its highs and lows. The film shows how the soldiers made the best out of what they had, or didn’t have. They joked with each other, and there was pretty much nothing off-limits. It was the ultimate boys club. The crude jokes, homo-erotic humor, and complete un-political correctness that makes up soldier life is portrayed at different points in the film.

Part of the decision making process of setting up and patrolling such a dangerous place as the Korengal Valley is also shown via shura meetings with elders and some of the static interviews with both company commander Dan Kearney (BTW, his father, LTG Frank Kearney was my Battalion Commander at one time in my military career) and 1SG Caldwell that were done after the unit re-deployed back to Italy.

Speaking of the static interviews, I think that is what really sets this film apart and gives the viewer the “human” side of the soldiers. It is one thing to see the soldiers on the outpost joking around, yelling during a firefight or even sunbathing…it is something else when the camera is zoomed in very close on their face as they sit in a studio in Italy with a black backdrop and let their emotions, fears, concerns and cares flow out for all to see. There were many interviews, but I think it is Cortez’s who impacted me the most. PFC (I think that was his rank at the time) Cortez appears to be one of those guys who hides his feelings behind an infectious smile, but his eyes speak something different. As the interviews with Cortez continue on in the film the smile stays, but the eyes seem to change. That is until the last interview snippet as he drops the smile and just stares into the camera. Maybe it is just me, but it seemed that through his whole interview he did all he could to keep that smile up as a sign of nervousness and as a way to hide what was inside, but as he got near the end he either could not do it anymore or he just finally felt comfortable enough to let his guard down. For me as a previous First Sergeant who has dealt with many problems brought to me by my soldiers I do a lot of body language and facial reading. For me, the smile stood out as hiding something, but the dropping of it at the end said a lot more.

As I mentioned earlier, there were some “good” times. Times that showed the stamina of the American Soldier as he took the worst of situations and found humor in them. There were parts in the movie that made more than just old soldiers like me laugh, but made everyone laugh. These guys had NONE of the everyday comforts we Americans take for granted without even a partial thought day in and day out. They had to make best of what they had. Sometimes it was dancing with each other, other times it was fighting each other.

There is not much more I can say about the film without giving away more details that I think would be unfair to you. You need to see this and take it in and get your own impression. Just know that Bouhammer’s Afghan and Military Blog gives it TWO THUMBS UP. I put this film up there with “At War”, “Severe Clear”, and the mini-series “Generation Kill” when it comes to showing the realism of what life in a combat zone is like. If you live in the Albany, NY area it is currently showing at the Spectrum Theater and will continue to show there for as long as an audience shows up. There are many other theaters that it is showing in across the country. Please check out http://www.facebook.com/restrepothemovie to find a theater near you.

If for some crazy reason you don’t believe me and my review I invite you to check out a few others. The New York National Guard’s Public Affairs Officer, Paul Fanning’s review is up at http://readme.readmedia.com/Restrepo-comes-to-the-State-Museum/1584649. Sara Foss from the Schenectady, NY Daily Gazette has a review up at http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/foss/2010/jul/07/watching-restrepo/.

UPDATE- You can also check out the Blog called “Battlespaces” which is administered by the Center for Documentary Arts at The Sage Colleges in Albany, New York. Their review is at http://battlespaces-project.blogspot.com/2010/07/restrepo-part-i.html

NOTE- This is Part one of the review of the movie and its impact. There are two more parts that will be published over the next two days.

Categories: Movie Review
Tags: Afghanistan