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The Junger Book

Sebastian Junger, the writer of "The Perfect Storm" among other adrenaline-laced stories, has a new book out. It's called "War", and it examines the effects of intense military service on an infantry platoon in Afghanistan. With that knowledge, you can be forgiven for thinking that the film "Restrepo", which Mr. Junger co-directed and chronicles the same events, is a shameless marketing ploy. The film itself is anything but. "Restrepo" is a straightforward documentary about a platoon of soldiers stationed deeply in harm's way. It's comprised of extraordinary footage shot while Mr. Junger was embedded with the men. And without assigning him too much altruism, I can say that the film appears to be a sincere attempt to shine a light on the everyday horrors of life during wartime.

In 2007, Mr. Junger, and his co-director Tim Hetherington, a combat photographer, spent a year in what CNN called "the most dangerous place on the planet": the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan. A veritable shooting gallery nestled amid arid hills, it should be a no man's land. But there are men there - the Second Platoon of Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. A group of soldiers sent to do what armies do: Occupy. Defend. Stay as long as you can. And for the men in the Korengal Valley, what they mostly do is get shot at. Day and night, day after day, everyday.

The film gets its title from one of their number who was killed early in the mission: Juan "Doc" Restrepo. Though we see little of him in the film, the men speak of him often in the way that any of us would a good friend: remembrances, in-jokes, impersonations. They choose to name an outpost after the man. It's the farthest into the Valley that they're able to push and, for that fact alone, it represents an achievement.

The men hold the outpost which, while only situated a few hundred meters from their basecamp, might as well be an ocean away. Much of the film shows the day-to-day drudgery of a soldier's life: the marching, the waiting, the digging, the repetitive setting up and breaking down of encampments. And of course, the constant fear of gunfire.

What may be most interesting about "Restrepo" is the experience of watching it. Decades of war movies have left us, as audiences, with certain expectations. As we watch these men walk freely around their outpost - stealing a free moment to play guitar or dance to that Samantha Fox classic "Touch Me (I want your body)" - we realize that we are expecting the worst. We're waiting for a bullet to unexpectedly rip through one of them in a spray of red. That the movie sets up this tension with actual footage is a testament both to the bravery of the filmmakers and the unfathomably dangerous location in which these men found themselves.

The film looks like "The Hurt Locker" or HBO's excellent "Generation Kill". But we need to keep reminding ourselves that these aren't characters. These are the men that are really over there. Doing the impossible, doing what most of us couldn't - or wouldn't. And while the film "Restrepo" isn't much of a documentary, the footage itself should be required viewing.