Korengal (2014)

 

                “Korengal” is the sequel to the highly acclaimed “Restrepo”.  “Restrepo” was a war documentary about an Army unit at an outpost in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan in 2007-2008  Both movies were directed by Sebastian Junger.  He and his photographer Tim Hetherington (who was killed doing his job during the Libyan Civil War in 2011) were embedded with the platoon for a year.  They developed a relationship with the men.  This allows the audience to be a fly on the wall in the outpost and on patrol. 

                The movie opens by informing us that the U.S. pulled out of the “valley of death” in 2010 after losing 42 men. One of them was PFC Juan Sebastian Restrepo.  Where “Restrepo” dealt mainly with the type of combat the soldiers encountered, “Korengal” deals more with the impact of that combat and soldier life off the line.  There are patrols and expenditure of ammo at unseen targets, but the movie is mainly interviews with the men.  These interviews give a clear picture of how modern war affects modern American soldiers.  The video game generation goes to war.  Now the adrenalin rush is not technology induced, it’s the real deal.  One main theme of the movie is that combat is addictive.  When one of the men is asked if he will miss anything, he says:  “Shooting people”.  Another theme is the bonding that takes place between comrades.  One describes the relationships by promising that he would “walk across the country to help change a tire” for any of his mates.  Another perspective of the war is that the intense moments of contact with the Taliban are balanced by long periods of boredom.  For example, they spend six hours arguing over who would win a fight between George Clooney and Fabio.  Similar to the Vietnam War, “Korengal” makes it clear that the civilian population in Afghanistan is caught between the two foes.

                Most of “Korengal” is up-close interviews.  Some of them were done in the studio after the men returned.  Several of the men are charismatic and what they say can be powerful.  One thing you can say about the platoon, there was no dysfunction and none of them has a negative personality.  I don’t know how realistic this is, but it appears the all-volunteer army is working effectively.  And in the field, they are good soldiers, although one has to wonder how they would handle previous generations’ wars like WWII.  Let’s hope we don’t find out.

                If you have seen “Restrepo”, you should see “Korengal”.  Just be aware that like most sequels, it is not as good as the original.  It just doesn’t pack the punch and it does have the feel of leftovers.  But even though the footage was left over from the first film, Junger wisely takes a different approach on this one and it fills in gaps more than replicates.

 

GRADE  =  B