First time director Danfung Dennis spent a number of months embedded with a 35 man US marine company in Afghanistan, where he found Sgt. Nathan Harris trying desparately to successfully complete a variety of dangerous missions behind enemy lines while keeping his squad safely intact. Just before completion of his third tour of duty, Harris was hit by enemy fire, shattering his hip and breaking his right leg. Unlike the comparable Restrepo, which displays the realities of war over the course of a year with a sizable cast, Hell and Back Again gracefully juxtaposes Harris’s time as a leader in battle to his rough recuperation and readjustment to civilian life. The center of a deadly war may seem like the last place on Earth someone would want to be, but Dennis’s intimate feature skillfully answers why so many soldiers, including Harris, sign up for multiple tours instead of staying safely at home with their loved ones.
Harris was doing the only thing he wanted to ever do. He was leading a team of killing machines to eliminate the enemy in order to defend the freedom of Americans everywhere. Though he understood and accepted the risks of being at war, his life was turned upside down after being wounded in combat, and sent back home. Instead of running amuck in the Afghan countryside, Harris was now couch-laden, drugged up on a long list of medications, and under the loving care of his incredibly patient young wife. Not only was he physically struggling to do normal every day tasks like get dressed or go to the store, but like almost every US war veteran, the fast paced, hectic life of a normal American has been incredibly hard to adjust to after an intense, but simple and straightforward tour of duty. Facing a life with chronic pain, a severe limp, and no hope of returning to combat, Harris is left wondering what to do with the rest of his young life.
Like the late Tim Hetherington, Dennis is a brave man, somehow capturing absolutely gorgeous footage despite bullets whizzing past his head, bombs going off around him, and soldiers going down in front of him. His subject in the unfortunate sergeant, is a charismatic born leader shown at both the top of his game, and his weakest moment. This radical change is a direct result of the brutality of war, but Harris’s feeling on the outcome seems to be complete acceptance, though his mental and physical instability test him daily. His duel story line was carefully woven together by editor Fiona Otway, who metaphorically linked war front topics to situations that played out back at home with great ascendancy, perfectly selecting meaningful and moving images to transfer between.
Following last year’s Restrepo and Armadillo with another real-life war film seemed somewhat risky in more ways than one, but new director Danfung Dennis makes his mark with a different take on the war in Afghanistan that focuses more on the harsh transition from active duty soldiers to regular old US civilians rather than the fighting itself (though there is plenty of that included). His beautifully filmed tale of the ferocity of war, and one man’s long road to a new normal upon arriving home. Hell And Back Again will leave you with a tense chest, and a new sense of appreciation for the freedoms we have here in the US and the soldiers that allow us to have them, despite your feelings on the war.
