Talk about coming out of nowhere. I had never heard of the documentary Restrepo before yesterday. Had I paid attention to the prize winners at 2010 Sundance Film Festival, then I guess it would have been on my radar. But there have been Grand Prize winners at Sundance that don’t mean much outside of Utah. But when I saw the official trailer for Restrepo I was just floored at how great it looked. The documentary chronicles the year in which two journalists, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, were embedded with a platoon in the “deadliest valley in Afghanistan.” The trailer alone makes it a viable contender for next year’s Oscars. Outpost Films and the National Geographic Channel are bringing it to theatres in late June.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBc_7Ewx0kA&feature=related
Winner of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for a Documentary, Restrepo chronicles the deployment of a U.S. platoon of courageous American soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, considered to be one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. From May 2007 to July 2008, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, on assignment for Vanity Fair dug in with the men of the Second Platoon, Battle Company of the 503rd Infantry Regiment (airborne), stationed at Restrepo, sharing duties and shooting more than 150 hours of combat, frustration, routine, jokes, terror and bravery during daily life at the outpost. Hetherington and Junger, have made a film unlike any other about men in harms way. We see their courage. We experience their frustrations. We share their bonding. We hear the music they listen to, and we see the snapshots of their kids that they pass around. It is something that audiences have never before experienced. As they fight the Taliban, these 15 men win our hearts and minds in a way no fictional film can.
If Sebastian Junger’s name rings a bell, it’s because he wrote the novel The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea. It was later made into a film starring George Clooney and directed by Wolfgang Peterson. Tim Hetherington was also the cinematographer for The Devil Came on Horseback.
Look for Restrepo at your local art house theater beginning on June 25, 2010.
