The Best Documentary Winner at Sundance, the Afghanistan war documentary Restrepo, will be hitting theaters soon. It's a small film, and it needs public support in order to convince theaters to run it. Find out more about the film and why you need to see it, and support it.
Ever since the buzz began for this film I've heard mixed reactions among military spouses and the families of soldiers. Some, like me, can't wait to see it. Others aren't sure they have the stomach for it and would prefer not to see, in graphic detail, what their loved ones are facing every day. I understand that sentiment, and I'm sure there will be points during the film where I wonder if I made the wrong decision to see it and I'm sure there will be elements of the film that will keep me at night after my husband deploys again. But I'm going to see it, with my husband, and you should too.
One of the most stressful parts of deployment, for a spouse, is the constant worry about your spouse's health and safety. When someone you love is in imminent danger not knowing what they are facing can be much worse than knowing the reality of the situation. No how matter how bleak, dangerous, or dark the images on the screen are the images in my head, from my imagination, will be 1000 times worse. Seeing the soldiers live, work, and survive in the Korengal Valley will give me a realistic look at how my husband will be living for the next year, and how he lived when he was there before, and that will lessen my stress during his deployment. Even though it might only lessen that stress fractionally I'll take what I can get.
But more than that, this groundbreaking film is the tool that we spouses have been begging for - it's the insight we need to understand our spouses when they come home and the bridge between their combat experience and our need to understand why they have changed and come home as different people. It's a tool that can save marriages, and save lives. When my husband and I were struggling after he came home the last time I heard the same desperate cry from every other spouse I encountered: " I need to understand and he/she won't talk to me!" In order to put our marriages back together after deployment we need to know what our spouses are going through and often they simply cannot tell us. Films like RESTREPO show us what our soldiers have lived through and give us the insight we need to connect with them again.
Sometimes our soldiers don't talk about their experiences because they want to protect us. Sometimes they don't talk about it because they're ashamed of things they may have had to do to survive. Sometimes they feel guilty about their brothers and sisters that didn't make it home. Sometimes they don't talk about it because they don't understand it themselves. Whatever the reason is, that silence can shatter a relationship.
Watching documentaries like RESTREPO , even when it's hard to watch, is a fantastic way to understand what your soldier has just been through so that you can tell your soldier, "it's ok, you don't have to talk about it. I understand." Behavioral changes, PTSD symptoms, and other issues that scare, confuse, and frustrate spouses and families can all be understood more easily after seeing what soldiers experience in combat. The filmmakers tell the story for them, so that we can understand and support them.
And it's not just the spouses and families of soldiers that benefit from seeing films like this. It's rare for a film to not take a political slant so that it appeals universally but this one does, because it focuses on the soldiers, and just the soldiers. Never before in the history of modern culture has it been possible for civilians to experience combat on this level.
No matter what side of aisle you lean to politically supporting the soldiers who are on the ground fighting should be more of a priority than rhetorical wrangling or political posturing. Support them, and their families, but understand what they have gone through in defense of their country. Learn how to help them, and their families, by seeing films like this that tell their stories, show their pain, and their triumphs, and take cues from what you see there to help build support programs that will really provide the help they need.
When we first came to Ft.Campbell it was a post that one of the highest suicide rates in the country. After my husband came back from Afghanistan last spring there was an average of two suicide attempts per day on post for months. Two per DAY. And there were more suicides off post. Dozens of soldiers here committed suicide in the three months following their return home. And the problem was even worse at other posts where there was a high rate of deployment. As someone who works in the medical field my husband sees soldiers still every single day who feel lost, confused, and suicidal. They feel unable to connect with their spouses, families, and the world around them because their combat experiences have been so isolating and overwhelming.
Seeing films like this is your chance to help the soldiers make the transition back to life. See the film, work for causes that support soldiers and their families, and when you meet a soldier who has served in combat shake his or her hand and tell them," I understand what you went through for your country. Thank you."
You could save a life.
To find out more about the film check out the movie's website.
TO BRING RESTREPO TO YOUR TOWN:
Check the RESTREPO FB Page and involved in bringing the film to your area.
Watch the trailer: