Twisted Time Reflections

The Politics of Life

Hetherington, the director of Restrepo, did not decide to create the film in order to set a political line.  He made the film in order to touch everyone differently and have them pick their own idea of war.  When Hetherington says "Everything we do is political," I would have to agree because our values help make our political.  But, I would like to point out that he says the film doesn't give you "easy political answers."  When people view the film they expect to be told how to react to the disturbing images but they are left on their own.  In life everyone has their own opinions.  An easy political answer would be to ban abortion or weaken immigration laws, but that isn't how things work.  Politicians have the pain-staking task of recognizing these decisions and creating an answer and that is what I feel when he says the film doesn't have "easy political answers."  The viewers of Restrepo are forced to take the role of politicians by putting all of their past experiences to discover an opinion.  Therefore when he said that "everything we do is political" he simply means that by putting all of our past experiences together we are able to make our own final political views.

As everyone I too have to have an opinion on the film.  Hetherington was able to choose what we witnessed in the Korengal Valley; He chose scenes of firefights and death, but he also showed the fun that the soldiers had and that is what I believe the political statement is.  He is saying that if the soldiers can find the beauty in war, than we, the public, thousands of miles away, can too.  He shows that yes it can be ugly at times but the final outcome is beautiful.  This is truly beautiful, he creates a film where people believe that they are supposed to conclude that war is ugly, but its not.  War is like brotherly fights, people become closer at the end.  I don't know how he was able to create this masterpiece, but I thank him.  This film has truly touched me and everyone else who has watched it, without it my perspective on war would be totally different.