(2010) "One platoon, one valley, one year," is the tagline for filmmakers Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger's stark, neutral-perspective, Afghan-war documentary, employing handheld cameras and post-mission interviews (in which Cortez admits he has trouble sleeping after what he's been through while another says that the memory of a dead comrade makes him better appreciate what he has) without other narration.

Beginning their 15-month dangerous deployment in Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan in May 2007, Second Platoon, Battle Company of the 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, under the command of Capt Dan Kearney (expecting within two months to fix the situation so that the enemy won't have the opportunity to shoot at Americans any longer), suffer their first casualty, Pfc Juan "Doc" Restrepo.

From the Korengal Outpost "KOP" Second Platoon is dropped into the valley ("fish in a barrel") by helicopter to establish the new outpost with the objective of sustaining security for a road-construction project. They name their new home Restrepo OP where they dig in and construct dirt-filled fortifications while engaging in four or five firefights ("fun - no better high") with the Taliban daily.

When not working, fighting, sleeping, or eating, the soldiers rough house, exercise, play video games, listen to music and dance. Misha Pemble-Belkin says he was raised without access to toy guns or tv violence by hippie parents.

The men go out on patrols, detain suspicious people, talk to the local elders in weekly suras, which are frustrating for lack of cooperation. Following a stretch of baffling silence from the Taliban (who do not once appear on camera), the platoon goes in search of the enemy in "Operation Rock Avalanche."

During the first two days they search targeted dwellings struck by US rockets in which both the enemy and children are victims; on the third day ("They're gonna hit us. When's it gonna happen?") the Taliban attack them, killing one and wounding two others.

After news of another company's getting hit hard by the Taliban, Capt Kearney gives his men a pep talk about their responsibility to "make them pay." Other than that, his advice is to "say a few prayers and move on."

As a complement to this film, I'd recommend reading former infantryman Brian Mockenhaupt's "The Last Patrol" in The Atlantic (November 2010), a concentrated account of a single day (July 11, 2010) of combat in Kandahar's Arghandab River Valley with Second Platoon, Charlie Company, 2-508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, as they turn over responsibilities (at the conclusion of a deployment begun in September 2009) to their replacements - an untried artillery unit - in what they called the Devil's Playground.

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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