IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD OF THIS FILM, YOU NEED TO WATCH IT.
"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. Sparse vegetation clings to the rocky, jagged terrain. There is dust everywhere. 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.