Logan Blain

The Hurt Locker in Comparison to Restrepo

        After watching a Hollywood film about war and then seeing one documentary that was completely raw, it made me question what was accurate in the Hollywood film. While watching the documentary film Restrepo I was constantly comparing and contrasting the actuality of Restrepo to The Hurt Locker. One of the first things I noticed was the cohesiveness of the men on post at Restrepo compared to the group of men in The Hurt Locker. In the Restrepo group they always stick together, and there is an overall sense of friendship within the fleet. Another aspect of Restrepo that I saw that was not depicted in The Hurt Locker is the troops' role in negotiating with the locals. Overall, I see The Hurt Locker as more of a Hollywood attraction more than it is an accurate depiction of war in Afghanistan.

       In Restrepo, all of the men are cohesive in that they do not fight, they all get along and they all function well together. In The Hurt Locker James does his own thing and doesn't have any regard for Sanborn and Eldridge. The way that James does everything his own way against orders would be an absurd idea in the context of Restrepo. All of the men follow orders and work together as a team. No one man stands out and tries to be the hero. Richard Allen Smith states that “what is truly disrespectful of service members was the portrayal of the EOD team members as undisciplined, boozing, fighting children with no discipline or respect for their chain of command.” In my previous blog post I addressed the question that is “Is The Hurt Locker a Thriller or a Moralization?”. Richard Allen Smith states that “in fact, most of the scenes-In The Hurt Locker- rely on oddly and unrealistically contrived situations to induce a stressful reaction from the audience." Smith states that “The Hurt Locker exaggerates and creates unrealistic situations to induce a certain emotion from the film.” This is also apparent when you compare it to Restrepo. None of the stressful and emotionally stimulating scenes in Restrepo are due to a heroic act, like James's. The emotionally stimulating parts of Restrepo are real and are in no way exaggerated.

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        Restrepo, in my opinion, combines many different aspects of war within the film and doesn't limit itself to combat. Although the Korengal Valley is a heavy-combat area, this is not the only thing the movie focuses on. One aspect of the documentary that shocked me was how much the American soldiers negotiated and communicated with the indigenous people. I have never seen this aspect of war depicted in any war movie I have ever seen. It is intriguing how the locals react to the things that the Americans do. When the Americans kill the seriously injured cow the locals want financial compensation for it. Although this roused tension between the Americans and the Afghanistan elders, the Americans showed their respect by attending the traditional shura meetings held by the elders. One of the main purposes for the deployment of troops into the Korengal Valley was to facilitate negotiations with the indigenous people and I really liked seeing this side of war. On the other hand, The Hurt Locker shows no negotiation with the locals. Unless you consider threatening a form of negotiation, then the Americans in this movie do not negotiate with the locals. Other than James interacting with the young boy who sells DVDs, the Americans do not interact or even attempt to negotiate with the locals. The only interaction is in terms of suspicion of IEDs.

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        After watching Restrepo, I quickly realized that the notion of what I thought war was like was far from true. I am glad that Restrepo was filmed and that it is a raw documentary. I believe that all of the public should see this film to correct their twisted notions of what war is like. Hollywood is responsible for the common misconceptions including the idea that war is all about combat, and how the men act and interact with each other. The Hurt Locker is narrow in its focus, it only focuses on the combat aspect of war when Restrepo reveals to us that combat is not the only aspect of war. The Hurt Locker depiected the men's off-time as a time to get wasted and act roudy. Restrepo proves to us that this is not the case at all. In their off time the men bond with each other, play music, dance or play games, all of these very non-violent actions. Restrepo is an imformitive and revealing piece of information that shows us what is true about war.