'Restrepo': The real war in Afghanistan

In June 2007, writer Sebastian Junger and photographer Tim Hetherington joined a U.S. Army platoon as it built a lonely outpost in Afghanistan's desolate, deadly Korengal Valley. The resulting documentary, "Restrepo," doesn't work an angle or press an agenda, but simply follows the soldiers through a year of frustration, boredom, fear and death.

"Restrepo," named for the outpost - itself christened after a fallen comrade - is in one sense the "real" version of "The Hurt Locker," which felt like a documentary but employed actors and a script. The two films look and sound similar: Just as the fictional Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) savored the adrenaline rush of disarming a bomb, the real-life Sgt. Kyle Steiner hoots excitedly, "You can go bungee jumping or kayaking, but once you've been shot at there's no going back."

The downside of that excitement comes during a Taliban attack that claims another soldier. We don't see his death, which is probably for the best, but we do witness the grief and sobs that follow. "Restrepo" may be a less visceral film than its staged counterpart, but that - as the saying goes - is life.