Korengal Valley-2009.jpg
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Korengal'' is a 2014 documentary about the War in Afghanistan directed by Sebastian Junger. It picks up where the film '' Restrepo'' (2010) left off, taking the viewer deeper into the experiences of the soldiers of Second Platoon, Battle Company, 2nd Battalion,
503rd Infantry Regiment The 503rd Infantry Regiment, formerly the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment (503rd PIR) and the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment (503rd AIR), is an airborne forces, airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment served as a ...
,
173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team The 173rd Airborne Brigade ("Sky Soldiers") is an airborne infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) of the United States Army based in Vicenza, Italy. It is the United States European Command's conventional airborne strategic response force for Eur ...
of the U.S. Army while they were stationed in Afghanistan's
Korengal Valley Korangal Valley (alternatively spelled Korengal, Kurangal, Korangal; ps, کړنګل), also nicknamed "The Valley of Death" is a valley in the Dara-I-Pech District of Kunar Province, eastern Afghanistan. Agriculture and forestry The valley ...
in 2007-8. The film consists of footage of the soldiers during their deployment, as well as interviews conducted afterward. Most reviews of the film were favorable.


Background

The film is composed primarily of footage shot by photojournalist Tim Hetherington and journalist Sebastian Junger in 2007 and 2008 during approximately 10 months spent with Second Platoon, Battle Company, 2nd Battalion,
503rd Infantry Regiment The 503rd Infantry Regiment, formerly the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment (503rd PIR) and the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment (503rd AIR), is an airborne forces, airborne infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment served as a ...
,
173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team The 173rd Airborne Brigade ("Sky Soldiers") is an airborne infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) of the United States Army based in Vicenza, Italy. It is the United States European Command's conventional airborne strategic response force for Eur ...
of the U.S. Army at Outpost (OP) Restrepo in Afghanistan's
Korengal Valley Korangal Valley (alternatively spelled Korengal, Kurangal, Korangal; ps, کړنګل), also nicknamed "The Valley of Death" is a valley in the Dara-I-Pech District of Kunar Province, eastern Afghanistan. Agriculture and forestry The valley ...
, along with interviews recorded with some of the soldiers after Second Platoon returned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team's base near Vicenza, Italy. Heatherington and Junger had already assembled the Academy Award-nominated 2010 documentary ''Restrepo'' from the same material, but after that film was completed there was still a considerable amount of footage left unused. Hetherington was killed by shrapnel in April 2011 while reporting on the First Libyan Civil War, so Junger made ''Korengal'' as the sole director. Whereas ''Restrepo'' had been intended to make the viewer feel what it was like to be in combat, Junger's aim with ''Korengal'' was to delve deeper into the experience and emotions of those in combat and deconstruct what war does to the individual soldier. He said: "One of the things I wanted to communicate with this film is that combat is a lot of things. It is not just one thing. It is very exciting for everybody. It is very scary for everybody. It is incredibly meaningful. It is very, very sad if you stop and think about what you are doing." Whereas ''Restrepo'' showed the "high" of combat, ''Korengal'' has been said to express more bitterness.


Synopsis

Text displayed at the start of the film reads: "In April 2010, the U.S. military pulled out of the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan. 42 Americans died fighting there." Archival news footage is then shown of the demolition of Outpost (OP) Restrepo by American troops before their withdrawal from the valley. The rest of the film takes place between 2007 and 2008, when the men of Second Platoon, Battle Company, were stationed in the Korengal Valley and both constructed and spent much of their time defending OP Restrepo, named after their fallen comrade PFC
Juan Sebastián Restrepo Juan Sebastián Restrepo (October 7, 1986 – July 22, 2007) was a Colombian American soldier and medic. Restrepo was killed in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, of neck wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small-arms f ...
. Footage of the men in combat is intermixed with interviews conducted with them afterward, in which most of them express that they had experienced both the most intense fear and the most intense exhilaration of their lives in combat, with stretches of extreme boredom between the spurts of action. All of the soldiers describe bonds with those who served beside them that go beyond the intensity of even their family ties, and one soldier says he would gladly throw himself on a grenade to save the other members of his unit. Many of the soldiers miss the camaraderie of the other men, the adrenaline of war, and the excitement of "cheating death." One soldier says he would "go back right now if I could", while another worries that God hates him for the "sins" he committed on his deployment.


Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 38 reviews, with an average score of 6.4/10; the website's "critics consensus" reads: "''Korengal'' finds documentarian Sebastian Junger taking another clear-eyed -- and poignantly thought-provoking -- look at the human cost of modern warfare." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In his review of the film,
Justin Chang Justin Choigee Chang (born January 3, 1983) is an American film critic and columnist for the ''Los Angeles Times''. He previously worked for ''Variety''. Early life Justin Chang graduated from the University of Southern California in 2004. Chan ...
of '' Variety'' wrote that "Sebastian Junger delivers a worthy companion piece to ''Restrepo'' with this more reflective dispatch from the front lines of Afghanistan." David Denby of '' The New Yorker'' said: "As a record of the war, the two films 'Restrepo'' and ''Korengal''are imperishable." A few critics found ''Korengal'' meandering. Ed Gonzalez of ''
Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'', for example, called the film "an alternately gripping and dully meandering patchwork of these soldiers' simultaneously chill and quite literally maddening stay in the Korengal that pointedly shuns big-picture philosophizing."


References


External links


Official Website
* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, korengal War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) films 2014 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Kunar Province Films set in the Korangal Valley Films about the United States Army 2010s English-language films 2010s American films