‘Restrepo,’ a film by Sebastian Junger & Tim Hetherington

Hour 1

The best-reviewed film of the U.S. war in Afghanistan receives its world television premiere on the National Geographic Channel tonight. “Restrepo” chronicles the yearlong deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, which saw some of the heaviest fighting of the war to date. The film takes its name from a 15-man combat outpost the soldiers dug into a hilltop in the dangerous valley, an outpost that itself was named after a popular medic in the platoon who was killed early in their deployment. The film by British award-winning photojournalist TIM HETHERINGTON and U.S. journalist/author SEBASTIAN JUNGER forgoes the big picture to hone in on the war as experienced by this one group of U.S. soldiers. The filmmakers join Marty for today’s Radio Times to discuss their movie, the men with whom they dodged bullets, laughed and suffered; and what they learned about war in the process. One of the men of Second Platoon was recently awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism depicted in the film.

Listen to the mp3

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[audio: 112910_100630.mp3]