war gripping raw reality poignant

gripping chilling admiration heroes pride

Recaps a year in the "Stan," for a company of Airborne Grunts. Slow in parts, but isn't war like that? Different than the preview, which was very melodramatic. Went with my wife, who fell asleep during the middle of the movie. We are both veterans, thus thought the movie was a good synopsis of soldiers' life on the line, but it is hard to put 15 months into 90 minutes. It would have been better to show life during most of field assignment called Operation Rock Avalanche, when the pain level was higher for these soldiers. Anything else in journalism has a political message, at least this did not. It was plain facts and witness to what happened. For that I am grateful. I am also grateful to have men like Capt. Dan Kearney, with boots on the ground, who desire to go in and correct the mistakes we've made. We all have to remember that war is made by the politicians to create a political result, and soldiers should obey their plans. But that's for Generals to decide. A GI's Story.

To get the footage seen in this film had to be damn near impossible. But it paid off to say the least. So emotionally investing. Gives war a real face. And a dark, grim, dirty face at that. This has to be contender for best Documentary come Oscar time.

I admit that it wasn't easy to sit through this movie. I disagree with anyone saying that this movie glorified war. Very much the opposite. What made it painful to me was the division that I felt. I felt bad for these young kids, thrown into a place that is totally over their heads. Kids that probably have never been outside of the US. On the other hand I felt anger at their ignorance. In a twisted way, the Afghans they are fighting and the army are talking the same talk of retaliation. I have to admit though, that seeing kids being hurt during the air raid was hard to stomach and made me sympathetic towards the Afghans...It is a complex movie about a sad situation in one of the most breathtaking places in the world.