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RESTREPOMovie Reviews
Documentary that chronicles a year with the Second Platoon of the 173rd Airborne Brigade fighting in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Cast:Dan Kearney, Lamont Caldwell, Kevin Rice, Misha Pemble-Belkin, Kyle SteinerDirector:Sebastian Junger, Tim HetheringtonRelease Date:June 25, 2010DVD Release:December 7, 2010From:National GeographicRating:RLength:1 hr 33 min
Restrepo played in key cities to sensational reviews. • Joe Morgenstern wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "...timeless.... superb... This movie will stir your heart and open your mind. It's a group portrait of practicing patriots." • And Claudia Puig wrote in USA Today, "...won the documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance... immerses viewers and leaves them feeling as if they've been through their own tour of duty." More Reviews Below...
Alynda Wheat, People: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...as visceral as it is apolitical... If the men's accounts of one fierce firefight doesn't get to you, watching as they discover the body of one of their own certainly will."(See all of Alynda Wheat's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 106 words, 06/24/10
David Germain, Associated Press: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...an intimate portrait of a platoon's tour of duty that's disturbing, rattling and heartbreaking in its immediacy.... an unforgettable chronicle of fraternity under fire."(See all of David Germain's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 608 words, 06/24/10
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: GOOD(cg) "It's doubtful you'll ever see a combat documentary that channels the chaos of war as thoroughly... turns the insular, fractious horror of war into an insular, fractious movie."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 97 words, 06/25/10
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: VERY GOOD(cg) "...embeds you deep into the war... The filmmakers offer no commentary. We watch. And what we see is explosive, deeply moving and impossible to shake."(See all of Peter Travers's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 117 words, 06/25/10
Claudia Puig, USA Today: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...won the documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance... immerses viewers and leaves them feeling as if they've been through their own tour of duty."(See all of Claudia Puig's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 139 words, 07/01/10
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: OUTSTANDING(cg) "This is hard, hard duty. A 15-month tour. Our admiration for these men grows.... There is the sense they're fighting for each other more than for ideology."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 681 words, 07/01/10
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (12 Reviews)
A.O. Scott, New York Times: OUTSTANDING "...belongs with 'The Hurt Locker' and 'Gunner Palace' on the short shelf of essential 21st-century combat movies... has the spare, lyrical force of an elegy..."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 979 words, 06/25/10
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...places audiences into the same groggy but frazzled rhythm as its combatants.... deliberately remains a mystery."(See all of Joe Neumaier's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 155 words, 06/25/10
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "What 'Restrepo' does so dramatically, so convincingly, is make the abstract concrete, giving the soldiers on the front lines faces and voices."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 972 words, 06/25/10
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...gut-wrenching, politically neutral... spends more than a year with a platoon of American GIs in a valley that's been called the most dangerous spot on Earth."(See all of Lou Lumenick's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 337 words, 06/25/10
David Edelstein, New York Magazine: OUTSTANDING "...set in an alien world and has a touch of the surreal, but it's the furthest extreme from escapism.... a nearly unrelenting nightmare.... a stunning piece of work..."(See all of David Edelstein's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 511 words, 06/21/10
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: OUTSTANDING(cg) "This is hard, hard duty. A 15-month tour. Our admiration for these men grows.... There is the sense they're fighting for each other more than for ideology."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 681 words, 07/01/10
Ella Taylor, Village Voice/LA Weekly: EXCELLENT "...raises its voice by lowering it.... this hyper-vérité film belongs to the soldiers of the Second Platoon of the 173rd Airborne Brigade..."(See all of Ella Taylor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 756 words, 06/23/10
Jason Anderson, Toronto Star: OUTSTANDING(cg) "Samuel Fuller once claimed the only way to make a 'real war movie' was to have someone randomly shooting real bullets at the audience from behind the screen. Thankfully, the filmmakers have not gone to this extreme."(See all of Jason Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 590 words, 07/16/10
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: VERY GOOD(cg) "...candid and riveting... plunges viewers into the life of a military platoon whose mission, over the course of their year-long deployment, takes on a weirdly dual nature."(See all of Ann Hornaday's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 487 words, 07/09/10
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: OUTSTANDING(cg) " 'My only hope is that some day I can process it differently,' says one soldier... you want to salute him and say he took the words right out of your mouth."(See all of Carrie Rickey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 508 words, 07/02/10
Mick LaSalle, Houston Chronicle/San Francisco Chronicle: VERY GOOD(cg) "The soldiers come across, well, not like hotshots or wise guys, but as serious, responsible, thoughtful and intelligent young men doing the best they can..."(See all of Mick LaSalle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 650 words, 07/09/10
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...a movie that captures the grim routine of combat duty, and even quite a bit of combat... But what they're doing feels too abstract..."(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 667 words, 07/30/10
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...there is no way for an outsider to enter the most profound and traumatic experiences of these young men's lives, and that's a truth the film respects..."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 496 words, 07/23/10
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: EXCELLENT(cg) "...eschews conventional narrative techniques... follows the Army's 2nd Platoon in the Korengal Valley, which CNN dubs the most dangerous place on Earth..."(See all of Bill Goodykoontz's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 725 words, 07/30/10
Preston Jones, Dallas Morning News: EXCELLENT(cg) "...unsparing... The boredom, the fear, the brutality, the camaraderie, the psychological and emotional impact of combat - all are deftly captured..."(See all of Preston Jones's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 349 words, 07/16/10
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: OUTSTANDING(cg) "The decisive approach to stick with the soldiers makes this film a singular experience for those of us at home. What we see is what we must try to understand."(See all of Lisa Kennedy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 676 words, 08/06/10
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: VERY GOOD(cg) "The movie puts us so close to so much yet keeps its emotional distance -- as if to say, no matter how much we see, we'll never truly know."(See all of Wesley Morris's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 747 words, 07/02/10
John Hartl, Seattle Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "Try as it might to keep its distance from opinion and focus on the facts, 'Restrepo' can't help leaving you with a sense of despair about the situation in Afghanistan."(See all of John Hartl's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 455 words, 07/16/10
Tom Long, Detroit News: OUTSTANDING(cg) "The desperation and terror and nervous laughter the soldiers endure day-to-day, and their recollections from safety, say it all."(See all of Tom Long's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 304 words, 08/06/10
Ella Taylor, Village Voice/LA Weekly: EXCELLENT "...raises its voice by lowering it.... this hyper-vérité film belongs to the soldiers of the Second Platoon of the 173rd Airborne Brigade..."(See all of Ella Taylor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 756 words, 06/23/10
Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix: VERY GOOD(cg) "Filmmakers Hetherington and Junger capture the day-to-day routine of tedium, terror, exhilaration, and grief with handheld, breathless, sometimes battered fidelity..."(See all of Peter Keough's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 618 words, 07/01/10
Noel Murray, AV Club: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...unlike anything ever seen in a documentary... made all the more unsettling because neither the soldiers nor the audience can see who's doing the shooting."(See all of Noel Murray's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 419 words, 06/24/10
A.O. Scott, New York Times: OUTSTANDING "...belongs with 'The Hurt Locker' and 'Gunner Palace' on the short shelf of essential 21st-century combat movies... has the spare, lyrical force of an elegy..."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 979 words, 06/25/10
David Edelstein, NPR Fresh Air: OUTSTANDING "...unusually urgent... We share the perspective of the men who wait for the inevitable assaults, their most trivial exchanges seeming, in this context, momentous."(See all of David Edelstein's reviews...)(Listen to the full review...) 175 seconds, 06/25/10
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "What 'Restrepo' does so dramatically, so convincingly, is make the abstract concrete, giving the soldiers on the front lines faces and voices."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 972 words, 06/25/10
MOVIE INDUSTRY (6 Reviews)
John Anderson, Daily Variety: GOOD "...suffers from the same problem as the ongoing U.S. drama in Afghanistan: a lack of narrative coherence.... The shooting is remarkable... the moments are gripping..."(See all of John Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 509 words, 01/22/10
John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: GOOD "...an on-the-ground doc following a single platoon through its year-long deployment.... one-on-one material is often more affecting than the main event."(See all of John DeFore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 338 words, 01/28/10
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "What 'Restrepo' does so dramatically, so convincingly, is make the abstract concrete, giving the soldiers on the front lines faces and voices."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 972 words, 06/25/10
A.O. Scott, New York Times: OUTSTANDING "...belongs with 'The Hurt Locker' and 'Gunner Palace' on the short shelf of essential 21st-century combat movies... has the spare, lyrical force of an elegy..."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 979 words, 06/25/10
12.5 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Restrepo's reviews are separated by an average 12.5 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Restrepo (42 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Restrepo's reviews cover 74.8% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 18,766 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 447 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 50.9 Hours After Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Restrepo's reviews on average broke 50.9 hours after opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Restrepo's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
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