'Restrepo' has echoes of all the best war movies.

The sense of foreboding of 'Apocalypse Now', the horrors of guerrilla warfare in 'Platoon' and the tragic sense of wasted young life as depicted in 'All Quiet on the Western Front'.

But unlike this trio of celluloid classics, 'Restrepo' has no acting, no script and no certainly no special effects.

The gripping fly-on-the-wall documentary chronicles the 14-month deployment of a platoon of US soldiers in Afghanistan's notorious Korengal Valley.

Focusing on a remote 15-man outpost Restrepo, named after a 20-year-old platoon medic who was killed in action by Afghan insurgents, the film's absent of any kind of political agenda, preferring to simply portray the thrill, fear and tedium of day-to-day military combat.

What gives the film added depth is the way the directors, Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington who are embedded in Afghanistan with the troops, intercut the heart-pounding action with raw, unsentimental, testimonies from the surviving soldiers, almost all of whom have needed psychiatric help since leaving the treacherous Korengal Valley.

Serving up as a real life 'Hurt Locker', the heat of battle is conveyed as a powerful addiction for many of the soldiers with one of the platoon describing the sensation of being shot at like "being on crack".

However, the film makes no attempt to hide the horrors of war.

In the most powerful scene of the movie the young soldiers witness one of their platoon gunned down by the Taliban during a daring operation, which arguably shows one of the most gut-wrenching displays of grief recorded on film.

There are also lighter moments as well, like when three of the soldiers conduct a group rave to Sam Fox's Euro dance classic 'Touch Me (I want to your body)'.

It is unsurprising then that 'Restrepo' is being hailed as one of the best portrayals of war ever captured on camera.

'Restrepo' screens tonight at 8.30 at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.