The Queue Continuum: Restrepo

Restrepo is a phenomenal film co-directed by Sebastian Junger--who you likely know for having written the novel The Perfect Storm--and documentarian Tim Hetherington, who were embedded with Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd  Airborne Brigade Combat Team as they struggle against the entrenched Taliban in the most dangerous place we have troops... The Korangal Valley in Afganistan

On assignment for Vanity Fair, Junger and Hetherington follow the platoon for a year as they try to establish a sense of order in the valley. Their greatest achievement, seizing a strategic vantage point perched atop a peak in the valley, provides them with a chance to memorialize one of their fallen brethren, PFC Juan Restrepo, by naming the outpost after him. Once the work on OP Restrepo is completed, much of the film takes place from atop their hill.


Perhaps the most effective element of the film is the fact that the viewer has as little idea as to where shots are ringing out from as the soldiers do when they come under fire. While we have grown so used to war films being produced, conditioning us to certain conventions of the genre and the greater movie-going experience as a whole, this film leaves you on edge--never quite knowing if and when the Second Platoon may come under fire. Restrepo brings the war effort home, and now it's on Netflix Instant Queue.

I cannot recommend this highly enough.