I realized that I never really gave a review or thoughts on Restrepo; your life must be hanging in perpetual imbalance, for which I apologize. The recent TV premiere of Restrepo gave me another chance to watch the film and muster some thoughts, as well as remind me to spout my opinion here.
Yesterday, November 11, 2010, Veteran’s Day, I was privileged enough to meet Maj. Gen. James Mallory (USAR) Assistant Deputy Army Chief of Staff. Please excuse my boy-ish likely over-dramatic reaction to this encounter. Most people would think it’s no big deal…just some military guy. To that I say, in the words of John Pinette, oh Nay Nay! This was a GENERAL–a two star “Major General O-8″ to be exact; three away from the top! One of only 302 allowed by law in the US Army. This is one of two ranks (the other being “Admiral”) that kids pretend to be when playing war with friends: “I’m the General!” This is a rank that hundreds, if not thousands of troops look up to for leadership and direction in times of war! I won’t get into the nit-picky details of whether or not this specific General actually stands on a battlefield and points at things and demands his troops to “capture it!” The fact that this guy has dedicated his life to service in the US Army (Reserves, to be exact) long enough and distinguished high enough to reach this esteemed rank is impressive enough (for the money-oriented types out there, the position comes with a base pay in the range of $120k-$150k per year, depending on years of service). Add to that the immortal history of the rank (think: Generals Eisenhower, Patton, Lee, Grant, Jackson, Washington, LeMay, et al) and there’s just an air of awe surrounding someone wearing the star(s)–at least, to me there is.
Maj. Gen. Mallory and I
Photo courtesy of the Restrepo Facebook page: facebook.com/restrepothemovie
Restrepo, the award-winning documentary co-made by the author of War, is making its premiere on the National Geographic Channel next month. Mark your calendars, set your smartphone’s reminder app, set your DVR now for Monday November 29th at 9pm EST on the National Geographic Channel. Of course, if you’re reading this after that date, you’ll need to dig through the TV listings to find it.
The “movie version” of the book War has been making its way across the country in smaller Indie film theaters for the past many months. Not only has it generated a cult-like following of fans in less than a year, it leaves many unsuspecting folks wide-eyed and full of a perspective they’ve likely never thought of: the soldier’s daily life on the front line in the thick of it. All walks of life–pro-war, anti-war, service men and woman, military family members, Americans, non-Americans–have been checking this unbiased documentary out and pretty much all agree that it’s incredible in many ways. From raw footage recorded while on patrol with the subject platoon to deep thoughts with the soldiers (yes, they’re more than capable of that!), you’ll probably see and learn things previously unknown to you.
Enough build-up! Make time to watch this. If you have cable or satellite TV that gets the NatGeo channel, do yourself (and these guys who’ve sacrificed much to protect your butt–American or not) a huge favor and watch it at least once. It couldn’t get any easier. You don’t have to go to an old crummy theater that only hippies frequent. Fair warning though, I’m not sure if NatGeo is going to bleep out the bad words (which the film is chaulk-full of). If they don’t, it may not be a good idea to let little kids watch it. If they do, by all means let ‘em watch as there is little to no blood and guts. It’ll be one of the best history lessons they’ll ever get!
I’ll get my review (that i know you’re so dying to read, right) posted after the TV premiere. I saw the film only once int eh theater and I’d like to soak it in another time before putting thoughts together.
UPDATE: I just found out that the documentary premiere will air unedited and with limited commercial interruption. Keep this in mind for the little ones; it might be a bit rough for their ears.
Following suit of the handful of other book reviews I’ve posted, One Second After came to my attention by way of the guys at Blackfiveand was further recommended by many other sources online (you know, the other typical right-wingnut sites like gun forums and Fox News, et al). Such fanfare should be typical for a NYTimes Bestseller–in fact, the book deserves (demands) much more recognition; not so much for its excellent story, but for enlightening most of us to the very real danger that threatens the existence of our society. How’s that for over-reactive conspiracy-theorist exaggeration? I wish that’s all it was…
This great danger to our society (speaking of any modern civilized society and the regions immediately surrounding them or in any way dependant upon them–more or less, the vast majority of the world, not just the good ‘ole USA) is a physics phenomena called “electromagnetic pulse” (“EMP,” as it is commonly referred to). If it is ever harnessed as a weapon, as this book makes it by some unknown enemy (likely a rogue nation or mildly sophisticated terrorist organization), it would destroy everything that requires electrical circuitry to function (read: that’s pretty much everything our society uses to function/exist). One Second After centers a story around of the lives of a small North Carolina mountain town that survives day-to-day in the apocalyptic aftermath that follows such an unspeakable devastation.
Touching History by Lynn Spencer
I promise the purpose all of these book reviews is not a campaign to get you to think I’m some sort of book intellectual (but feel free to draw your own flattering conclusions!). Like I mentioned in my War review, the guys at Blackfive have supplied me with a few good book recommendations over the past year or more starting with this one: Touching History by Lynn Spencer. The subtitle/tagline pretty much clues you in 100% as to what the book is about: “The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11.” As someone who thought they had a good idea of what and how things went down on that infamous (and sadly, nearly forgotten) day, this book really opened my eyes to a relatively unknown story of the controlled chaos that happened above our heads.
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