MovieChat Forums > Restrepo (2010) Discussion > Priceless

Priceless

posted 14 years ago by wil_mcmillan
5 replies | jump to latest

We get free movie tickets at our school by showing our student ID. Just for the record: If I had that kind of money, I would have paid for everyone in America to watch this documentary. It just doesn't get any more real. In the physical world, I was in a theater. Mentally, I was in the midst of the shocking reality that death was right around the corner, but what am I fighting for? You can't grasp that concept the way that we all should until you have watched this in its entirety. A lot of people perceive these soldiers who fought to be indestructible, to witness a face deformed by the enemy's deadly firepower, and maintain enough composure to walk away from such a fatality because there's nothing that can be done. As stated during a time of mourning the fallen soldiers, they all joined the Army knowing that death was a possibility. But it was nice to see one of them show emotion, it gave this documentary one thing that no one expected to see. It's only part of being human, in a situation where you're expected to be something bigger than that.
I also LOVE the use of the Dropkick Murphys song Barroom Hero as the credits rolled.
One thing I hated was a comment made by some people who need to think before they speak. After this was over, as they began to light up their cancer sticks and smoke it up, one of them was arguing that none of this documentary ever happened, "just some guys in uniform rolling around in the sand." Obviously, they were drunk on the buckets of beer sold at the theater. Still, my problem with one of their statements is that unless you have been in the situation these soldiers were in, you have no right to say that what they did for this country wasn't real. Although at times I don't completely understand what the war accomplished, I have to admire their courage that I personally will never possess.

[–] nyshrink 14 years ago

Your school serves buckets of beer to students???

Many people can't determine fantasy from reality, and this is increasingly the case in the younger generations because they have been raised on CGI, video games etc. Nine years ago high school students watching the Twin Towers fall on Sept. 11 thought it was a movie and cheered when the towers came down. How could they have thought it was a movie when they saw the Twin Towers every day? Young people no longer know what is real or whether they're being tricked by some computer imagery. The end result of this will be a combination of inertia and apathy as people are no longer able to make decisions, or blind obedience to some authority because they believe they lack the information to make decisions with what they can see with their own eyes.

[–] wil_mcmillan 14 years ago

The theater in the same building as our school sells them. as far as I remember, $6.50 for 4 bottles on ice. pretty good deal, if you even care that much for bud light. but it's an art institution, not a high school, and as with most all places they ask for ID.
As far as 9/11, I'll never forget where I was when the news came on the TV's that were in every one of our classrooms, and not knowing what to think. In a state of disbelief, I guess you could say, but I knew what I was watching was indeed reality. I was in a class that taught American history, civics, and citizenship, things of that nature, and since then never felt as safe as I did here before those terrorist attacks. In the past year, the thought of the building I sit in being hit at random has actually crossed my mind, as I stared out of the window and found myself daydreaming. (Not during class, for the record).

[–] wil_mcmillan 13 years ago

Yeah, I have been thinking this over some more, and that is a valid argument. Video games will indeed desensitize a lot of people to killing another. Not quite to where they might just go out and do it the way they saw it done if provoked, but that if they saw it happen to another, it wouldn't even phase them most likely.

But concerning this documentary, what made it real for me was seeing each of the soldiers talk about his own personal experiences in the war. One of them even had to ask for a few seconds to get his train of thought back together. I just give them credit for being able to sit down and actually talk about it, especially concerning the guys who died out there unexpectedly. Well, somewhat unexpectedly, because being in a war zone in Afghanistan is practically putting a target on your head to begin with. I can't imagine what went through their minds, knowing that snipers existed, and could take any one of them out at any given time.

[–] avnrulz 13 years ago

I was serving in Korea when the Towers came down. It was very hard to watch this documentary, knowing that the local population had no respect for our guys.

Fight the FOCA

[–] 13 years ago

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