85
Metascore
33 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternThis movie will stir your heart and open your mind. It's a group portrait of practicing patriots.
- 91The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayRestrepo can be tedious at times and nerve-racking at others, but why shouldn't it be? That's exactly what Junger and Hetherington saw on the front lines, so that's what they show, with very little filter.
- 90New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinThe film is a nearly unrelenting nightmare. Even interviews shot with the survivors after the fact have a current of dread.
- 85MovielineStephanie ZacharekMovielineStephanie ZacharekThe low-key quality of the filmmaking in Restrepo only intensifies the reality of how much these kids are risking.
- 80Village VoiceVillage VoiceFor a movie that's both a study and a product of blood, sweat, and tears, an oft-cited mid-'60s quote from film and combat vet Samuel Fuller seems to apply: "Film is a battlefield," Fuller said in Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le fou. "There's love, hate, action, violence, death. In a word: emotions."
- 80Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfStripped to a minimum of editorializing (but, like "The Hurt Locker," flush with sympathy), this Afghanistan-shot war documentary takes its cues from the unblinking style of cinema verité.
- 75ObserverSara VilkomersonObserverSara VilkomersonA documentary so real and unflinching (and at times deeply frightening) that it's hard to watch, but it is one of those film experiences that you'll feel glad about getting through.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeIn-depth account of Army deployment in an Afghanistan hotspot shows soldiering at its most rugged.
- 70VarietyVarietyBut despite its remarkably intimate footage of war and loss, Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's documentary suffers from the same problem as the ongoing U.S. drama in Afghanistan: a lack of narrative coherence.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanIt's doubtful you'll ever see a combat documentary that channels the chaos of war as thoroughly as this one.