Witnesses to the Sorrow

I have been watching the documentary Restrepo. The film gives an unprecedented look at the experiences of soldiers deployed in one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan: the Korengal Valley.

But the film is not just about maneuvers and strategy. Instead, it gives the viewer a look at how this combat deployment affects the men by interlacing interviews with on the ground footage. It is these interviews that make the film so potent.

These are some powerful statements by Sgt Aron Hijar, and maybe even surprising. Too often, our culture focuses on the soldier as warrior, a man unaffected by the violence swirling around him. But these interviews suggest something different. Like Joseph Robertson in "Germans in the Woods," these men understand that they have witnessed painful events that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. In Robertson's case, although decades had passed since his lethal confrontation with a young German soldier in WWII, he says "I still see him in my dreams, and I don't know how to get him out of my mind." As he chokes out these words, Robertson's voice tells us everything we need to know about the consequences of taking another life.

However, it is not just what they say. It is how they say it. It is their eyes as the speak. What the filmmakers capture before and after each soldier speaks is a mixture of sorrow, uncertainty, resignation, and endurance. The film shows us war and its consequences: a middle distance stare in search of meaning.