Politics and the Affects of War

In the documentary, Restrepo, a cameraman follows a group of soldiers that were deployed in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, recording their experiences and struggles. The film does not include a narrator, but rather, allows the audience to react to what they see on their own. In one of the few interviews seen in the film, one soldier named Hetherington goes on to say that “everything we do is political,” in response to being asked if the film was political. I think what he meant by this was that with every choice you make in life, you are subconsciously supporting or negating a cause. I agree with his statement because if you decide to eat fast food everyday instead of eating something healthier at home, you are subconsciously supporting obesity because you’re giving the business that provides fast food revenue. If everyone started eating fast food, there would be a fast food restaurant on every corner and run all of the healthy restaurants out of business. These politics that we experience on a daily basis greatly influence our culture, and what we perceive as “normal” behavior.

The clips that the director chose to include in the documentary were not random, but rather, were included to portray a significant message to its viewers. After watching the film and reflecting on the events that occurred, I believe that the theme really promotes a feeling of antiwar and addresses the negative effects of war on soldiers. The documentary uses footage of American soldiers fighting, being shot and killed to demonstrate this point. It also includes commentary from the soldiers after a scene where their friend was shot for example to show the deep emotional and psychological affects these events have on them. Another theme that the film addresses frequently is the age of the soldiers. All of the people deployed are very young, and this is shown in different scenes where they are rough housing or being immature. These scenes portray the men as childish in order to reinforce the issue that they are too young to be experiencing something as traumatic as war. The film uses politics like these to support the claim that we should not engage in war unless necessary and that we should not be sending young men to fight because it’s psychological effects.