Restrepo – 4

     A very disappointing documentary about a Marine outpost called ‘Restrepo’ in remote Afghanistan. It had none of the characters, none of the action, none of the suspense, none of the message of Matterhorn, the book about a Marine company in Vietnam that Siri and I had both just finished reading. The use of talking heads filmed after-the-fact drained drama from the situation and, except for the lieutenant, I didn’t find the individuals interesting or terribly engaging. There was never any sense of whom the Marines were shooting at or the danger, undoubtedly real, that they were in. Symptomatic of the film’s emptiness was the name ‘Restrepo’ – given to the camp in honor of a fallen comrade, whom we saw only once, in a snapshot and who, consequently, meant nothing to us. If it hadn’t been for a postscript about the military’s abandoning this valley a year later, there would have been no point at all to the exercise.