Going Back to War, Trading a Gun for a Pen

By THOMAS JAMES BRENNAN | At War | The documentary filmmakers Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington embedded in Afghanistan with one mission: to document war. The result was the gripping documentary “Restrepo.” For nearly one year, they lived in peril alongside the United States Army. Their project won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010 and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2011.

Besides sharing their passion for reporting on conflict, they shared the fact that neither was a veteran.

Civilians have been writing on military affairs for generations, and many have done a superb job. But the question exists, particularly within military circles: Do veterans have an edge over nonveterans when it comes to covering war? (READ MORE)

RESTREPO's Tim Hetherington Reportedly Killed in Libya

Via the Business Insider:

Oscar Nominated Documentary Filmmaker And Photographer Reportedly Killed In Libya

This is terrible news. And important to note the details are still sketchy.

But there are reports that photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros have been killed in Libya.

The news was first posted on fellow photographer Andre Liohn's Facebook page. Liohn is reportedly at the hospital.

Hetherington was nominated for a Oscar this year for the documentary Restrepo which he co-directed with journalist Sebastian Junger.

Chris Hondros is a Pulitzer-Prize nominated war photographer whose work has appeared in the NYT, Newsweek, and the Economist, to name a few.

The two were reportedly covering the fighting in Misrata. Yesterday Hetherington tweeted: "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO."

READ MORE

UPDATE:
Numerous news sites are now reporting that it has been confirmed that Tim was killed along with Chris Hondros. They were reported to have been killed in the city of Misrata while covering fighting between Muammar Gaddafi's forces and Libyan rebels.

News reports indicate that fellow photojournalist Andre Liohn, wrote on his Facebook page that the two had died "when covering the front line."

Post-Christmas: Rain, Snow, Sun, Hubs and Thoughts About Restrepo from The Kitchen Dispatch

The Kitchen Dispatch: Post-Christmas: Rain, Snow, Sun, Hubs and Thoughts About Restrepo -

It's been a busy week, as you can imagine. Christmas day was fine, but the 27th was really our day of celebration as the Hubs flew into town. We had friends come over for dinner --the theme of the meal was "meat," being that I cooked a prime rib. You know, we don't get to see him very often. Just a few weeks out of the year, so every time we get together it is a very big deal. Everyone misses him, and I can't say much more about it that most of you don't already know. Funny thing though-- he always think the house looks real nice when he comes back. Maybe that's because we clean like crazy the days prior to his arrival.

The weather has been rainy, and apparently it's cold and snowy in the mountains. The hubs and the kids are heading up for some skiing tomorrow. I'm staying here because I don't like being cold! I think I'll use the free time to go see The King's Speech, or maybe that crazy loud movie Burlesque. I love Cher (still) no matter how many plastic surgeries she has. Cher rocks it, and I appreciate that both she and Tina Turner and so many other ladies still can tear out a song now and then. Besides, the idea of Cher and Stanley Tucci together is irresistible.

Anyway, not much more to report except that it occurred to me that the Oscar nominations are coming up. I sure hope Restrepo gets a nod. It sure would be nice for Tim and Sebastian to get a nod from the film industry too. I know a lot of people think the film is only about the 173rd, but the truth is that the film means a lot to soldiers from every branch and from many nations. It brings to the screen the experience and emotions they have had and felt, and reminds them of their youth and friends they have lost.

(READ MORE)

Restrepo - Airs Tonight on Nat Geo Channel

Restrepo the award-winning film by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington airs tonight on the National Geographic Channel at 9:00 PM EST.

The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, "Restrepo," named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the soldiers; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 90-minute deployment. This is war, full stop. The conclusions are up to you.

You won't want to miss this film.

FREE - RESTREPO Invite for June 28, 2010

If you are going to be in DC on Monday, June 28, 2010. Go ahead and grab this invite, RSVP by June 24, and go see the movie!

Movie Review - RESTREPO

IF your view of the war in Afghanistan is shaped by what you read in the New York Times or see on the news, then you can be forgiven if you believe that it’s all drones dropping bombs on the Taliban in the mountains along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. If you want to know what it is really like, then take some time and view the movie RESTREPO being released by Outpost Films and National Geographic Entertainment on June 25, 2010.

RESTREPO is the work of Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington as they spent months chronicling the 15 month deployment of 2nd platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne out of Vicenza, Italy in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan. Dubbed the most dangerous place in Afghanistan, if not the world, the Korengal Valley is the front line in the fight against the Taliban and the men of 2nd platoon are the tip of the spear. OP Restrepo, named after their medic Juan Restrepo who was killed early in the deployment, is the home of 2nd platoon and it sits inside the enemy’s territory. Built on the exact location from which the Taliban would attack the Korengal Outpost of B Company, OP Restrepo eased the pressure on every other American unit posted in the valley; it became the magnet to which every Taliban bullet was directed.

Junger and Hetherington dug in with the men of 2nd platoon at times taking fire 4 – 5 times a day all while filming these men and documenting their story. There are no politics in this documentary, no geo-political musings, just the harsh conditions of the life and death struggles endured by this family - 2nd platoon.

RESTREPO is not a Hollywood cinematic attempt at war; RESTREPO is war in all its raw grittiness. What I feared would be another “Jarhead,” RESTREPO was anything but. Chaotic and uncertain, Junger and Hetherington follow along and film as 2nd platoon patrols the nearby villages and become involved in one firefight after another. In one particularly tense moment Junger and Hetherington are along as the Company takes part in an operation dubbed Rock Avalanche. Two days in the platoon is ambushed by the Taliban who attack from a mere few meters away, killing a beloved sergeant.

Through it all you capture one over lying truth to the whole situation; these men love each other deeply. They are willing to do things that their head clearly tells them not to do because one of their own needs them. They refuse to let each other down and when one of their family is taken from them, you can feel the pain within.

Interspersed throughout are interviews with the men of 2nd platoon done after they returned to Italy. These interviews provide the only narration for the event you are a part of and are a powerful reminder of the level of emotion and stress that these men endured for those 15 months in the Korengal. Haunting memories are recounted and an eye opening level of introspection is evident that would have been impossible to obtain if these interviews had been completed while deployed, where they had to lock it all away and just continue to do their job.

RESTREPO is an uncensored look at what the men of 2nd platoon endured, what they did to get through and what they are doing to continue to process their time in the Korengal valley. This is their story; you can draw your own conclusions, about whether the US should have been there or not, the men of 2nd platoon went there because they were told to and they left when it was time to let another unit move in and take over where they left off. Believe all you want about war, but without a dose of reality to challenge you your beliefs may just hold you back from obtaining the truth; RESTREPO is the dose of reality you need.

The movie ends with a foot note: “In late 2009, the U.S. military began withdrawing from the Korengal Valley. Nearly 50 American soldiers died fighting there.”

In truth, 42 American’s died in the Korengal Valley.

RESTREPO opens on Friday, June 25, 2010 and is Rated R.

Q&A with Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger of RESTREPO

How did you come across this particular assignment – what brought you there? why did it appeal to you?
Sebastian: We were on assignment for Vanity Fair and ABC News. After an embed with Battle Company in 2005, I’d had the idea of following one platoon for an entire deployment and both writing a book and making a documentary about their experience.

We hear the initial reactions of the soldiers upon hearing that they’ve been assigned to the Korengal Valley. What was your initial reaction?
Sebastian: When I stepped off the helicopter in June ’07 I was stunned by the ruggedness of the terrain – and the beauty. Then again, I didn’t have to spend a year there, and I assumed the fighting would be minimal, which of course it wasn’t.

What kind of advice/protection did the soldiers offer you while you were shooting? Did you receive any training/guidelines (for your safety) prior to shipping out?
Sebastian: They knew Tim and I had been in plenty of wars before this, so they didn’t really offer any advice. Once or twice during combat I was advised where good cover was (it depends on what direction they’re shooting from).

Did you take turns with the camera?
Tim: We each had a camera and filmed more or less of our own volition. If I was busy taking stills, Sebastian would make sure to cover the camerawork. There were scenes where we were both shooting, and we would divide things up in a crude manner – I’d take the wides, he’d take the tights, or I’d shoot the Afghans while he shot the Americans.

What limits were placed on your access?
Tim: No limits at all on access; none. There was a stated agreement that we would not shoot wounded American soldiers – or would get their okay later – and I think there was an understanding that we would be very sensitive about filming the dead. The army asks to review a rough cut later for security and privacy concerns, but they had no issues.

Did you stay the entire duration of their deployment?
Tim: No, we did five trips each, sometimes together, sometimes not. Each trip lasted around a month.

How much footage was shot vs. what made it into the film? Did you ship footage back as you went along?
Sebastian: We shot 150 hours of footage, and we’d bring our footage back on each trip and copy it and log it. We also shot around forty hours of interviews at the soldiers’ base in Italy about three months after the deployment.

Who are these soldiers? Did you get any distinct impression of them, where they came from, why they were there? Any specific qualities that come to mind?
Tim: No one had followed a platoon for an entire duration of their deployment, so we became incredibly close to many of the soldiers. They came from a variety of backgrounds and had joined the army for a myriad of competing reasons. Some said they needed to get out of their parents’ home and saw the army as offering them independence, others that they were seeking a rite of passage and new experiences. Many didn't think they had many options open to them and saw the army as the best opportunity on offer. They came from all over the U.S. – many from Texas and California, others from faraway places like Guam.

What kind of dynamic did you have with your subjects?
Sebastian: Each trip the dynamic got more and more relaxed and comfortable. It became clear to the soldiers that we were not doing a political story and that we were comfortable in that environment – and that we were willing to take the same risks they were and endure the same discomforts. Tim broke his leg in combat; I ripped my Achilles tendon. Then I got blown up, but none of those things kept us from going back out there.

After being under fire for a sustained period, how would you describe the effect it has on you? Did you notice any change in the soldiers over the course of your time with them?
Sebastian: Both of us have been war reporters for some time now, so this was not our first experience being shot at. Being in a combat zone can be both exhilarating and terrifying, combined with long stretches of boredom. Things appear very simple in a war zone as the clutter of daily living recedes with the larger equation of being killed or staying alive. Mix this with being drip fed adrenalin, and inevitably it's going to make “coming back” incredibly difficult. I think this is something that the soldiers experienced, and to a lesser extent we also. In one scene, we see a soldier making small talk during serious acts of war. It’s quite affecting and an interesting choice.

Why did you choose to include it? Were there other moments like this that struck you?
Tim: There's a great emphasis in war reporting on capturing the actual “bang-bang” fighting of war – and many reporters feel that any work would be incomplete without a sense of this “action.” We were no different, but because there was an incredible amount of fighting going on in the Korengal Valley, recording the actual firefights got quite boring. What was infinitely more interesting and revealing was how the soldiers carried on in these situations. People who haven't experienced war inevitably base their understanding of it through the mediated versions of news or Hollywood. These representations are often limited and can't quite reveal the humor, boredom and confusion inherent in combat. It's something we felt was important to represent.

The film shows how multi-faceted the role of the captain is with respect to his team and the village/elders – being able not only to advance the military goal but also having to communicate the humanitarian aspects, too. Were there any dynamics of the platoon that you hadn’t anticipated that you were especially glad to have captured?
Sebastian: I was unprepared for just how smart and dedicated the officers were, and many of the enlisted men as well. I was also amazed by how open and welcoming they were with us – the press. It was not what I had anticipated.

Any interactions with the village people/elders that didn’t make it into the film that you wish you could have included?
Tim: There were many, many scenes of all types that we were heartbroken not to include in the film. There were very funny moments in the “shuras” – the meetings with the elders – and also very intense moments when someone was very angry. There were several scenes of locals saying how much they hated the Taliban and gave up information on them, and other scenes where they clearly hated the Americans and wanted them to leave. All of it shows the complexity of this kind of war, but we couldn’t put everything into the movie.

The film is very balanced and doesn’t lead you, but rather just shows you how it is. Could you describe whether you had any guiding principles about how/what you shot as well as how you edited, how you shaped the film ultimately?
Sebastian: We were not interested in the political dimensions of the war, only the experience of the soldiers, so we limited ourselves to the things soldiers had access to. We did not ask any generals why they were in the Korengal, for example, because soldiers don’t have that opportunity, either. Our guiding principle was that we would only have people in the movie who were fighting in the Korengal. It was that principle that excluded Tim and me from the movie as well… and prevented us from using an outside narrator.

Tim: It was a conscious choice. We are journalists, and as such, we are not supposed to “lead” people to a certain opinion. That is called “advocacy,” and it certainly has its special place in the media world, but as journalists, it’s not something we wanted to engage in.

RESTREPO
One Platoon, One Year, One Valley
A film by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
94 mins. • 2010 • USA • SD and HD • Stereo • Rating TBD
RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2010

The Making of RESTREPO

From May 2007 to July 2008, Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade was stationed in the remote Korengal Valley of eastern Afghanistan – considered one of the most dangerous postings of the war. The soldiers of Second Platoon built and manned a remote and strategic outpost that they named “Restrepo,” in honor of their medic, PFC Juan Restrepo, who was killed in action. This is their story, in their words, of a group of men who came be considered the “tip of the spear” for America efforts in that area.

In the past five years the Korengal Valley – a rugged valley six miles long near the border with Pakistan – has become an epicenter of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. It was considered to be a crucial relay point for Taliban fighters moving from Pakistan toward Kabul, and several top Al Qaeda leaders were thought to have used it as a base of operations. In 2005, Taliban fighters cornered a four-man Navy SEAL team in the Korengal and killed three of them, then shot down a helicopter that was sent to save them. All sixteen American commandos on board died. By the end of 2007, almost one fifth of all the combat in Afghanistan was taking place in the Korengal. The fighting was on foot and it was deadly, and the zone of American control moved hilltop by hilltop, ridge by ridge, a hundred yards at a time. There was literally no
safe place in the Korengal; men have been shot while asleep in their barracks. To date, close to fifty American soldiers have lost their lives there.

Starting in June 2007, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger dug in with the men of Second Platoon, making a total of ten trips to the Korengal on assignment for Vanity Fair Magazine and ABC News. Each trip started with a helicopter flight into the main firebase in the valley and then a two-hour foot patrol out to Restrepo. There was no running water at Restrepo, no internet, no phone communication, and for a while, there was no electricity or heat; it was essentially just sandbags and ammo. Some days the outpost was attacked three or four times from distances as close as fifty yards. Hetherington and Junger – sometimes working together, sometimes alone – did everything the soldiers did except pull guard duty and shoot back during firefights. They slept alongside the soldiers, ate with them, survived the boredom and the heat and the cold and the flies with them, went on patrol with them, and eventually came to be considered virtually part of the platoon. By the end of the deployment, they had shot a total of 150 hours of combat, boredom, humor, terror, and daily life at the outpost.

Conditions for filmmaking couldn’t have been harsher. The surrounding mountains rose to a height of 10,000 feet – all of which was traversed on foot. Long operations meant carrying enough camera batteries to last a week or more, on top of the fifty or so pounds of gear required on even ordinary patrols. Cameras got smashed into rocks, clogged with dirt and hit with shell cartridges during firefights. Men were killed and wounded during filming, so there was a constant issue of when it was OK to turn on the cameras and when it was not. Only the filmmakers’ close relationship to the men of the platoon allowed them to keep shooting in situations where other journalists might have been told to stop.

Three months after the end of the deployment, Hetherington and Junger traveled to Vicenza, Italy, where the unit is based. They used two Veri-Cams, a full light and sound package, and two cameramen to conduct in-depth interviews with their main characters. These interviews – initially considered a kind of glue for the verité, and a way to avoid outside narration – wound up being some of the most powerful and
affecting material of the entire project. The soldiers were able to allow themselves a level of emotion and introspection that is simply not possible in combat.

Hetherington and Junger hired acclaimed editor Michael Levine (Billy the Kid, My Kid Could Paint That) and associate editor Maya Mumma to help them put the film together at Goldcrest Post. John Battsek and Nick Quested joined the team as executive producers on the project. The edit lasted ten months and was closely supervised by both filmmakers. RESTREPO is Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger’s directorial debut.

Junger's time with the men of Second Platoon is also the subject of his recently released book “WAR,” by Twelve, a division of the Hachette Book Group. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called the book “riveting... an unforgettable portrait of men under fire.”

RESTREPO

RESTREPO chronicles the one-year deployment of a platoon of American soldiers at one of the mostdangerous outposts in Afghanistan. A feature-length documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, “Restrepo,” named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 94-minute deployment. This is war, full stop. The conclusions are up to you.

I'll be attending an advance viewing of this documentary film on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at the National Geographic Headquarters in Washington DC.

Said one staff sergeant: "I wish I'd had something like that to show my soldiers before we left for Iraq." -Red Bull Rising