Hell and Back Again (2011)
Average Rating: 7.9/10
Reviews Counted: 27
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 8.2/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 1,958
My Rating
Movie Info
A master filmmaker and photographer, Danfung Dennis follows 25-year-old Marine Sgt. Nathan Harris on his most difficult mission: coming home after being seriously wounded in Afghanistan. Embedded with Harris's unit during their assault on a Taliban stronghold, Dennis brilliantly toggles between the intense experience of war, stunningly photographed by the director himself, and the challenges of re-adjusting to civilian life in small town North Carolina. Hell and Back Again brings the war home in
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Cast
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Nathan Harris
Nathan Harris -
Ashley Harris
Ashley Harris -
Christian Cabaniss
Christian Cabaniss -
Eric Meador
Eric Meador -
Edward Hubbard
Edward Hubbard -
Terry Roberts
Terry Roberts -
Doug Webb
Doug Webb -
Robert Gaines
Robert Gaines -
Matthew Swibe
Matthew Swibe -
Chris MacDonald
Chris MacDonald -
Danfung Dennis
Danfung Dennis
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All Critics (27) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (0) | DVD (2)
We're left to decide which wounds go the deepest, those from Afghanistan or those caused by the confusion and emotional barrages he continues to suffer in America.
Top CriticIn its closing scenes, "Hell and Back Again" builds to an emotional and stylistic power that we didn't see coming.
Dennis's film attempts something few documentaries have: to inhabit the psyche of its subject.
The film suggests that it doesn't really matter whether Harris ever gets back in uniform. He's forever carrying around a piece of unexploded ordnance in his head.
Lays bare the truth of war - its hellish quality - with such power, you're not likely to look at this, or any other conflict, the same way again.
The director has no intention of making a prefab antiwar statement. He simply wants to show us an experience, just as it happened, and let the chips fall where they may.
Hell and Back Again offers a potent documentary correlative to the narrative of The Hurt Locker.
Belies the misguided notion that a nonfiction effort on war's aftermath can't be artistically minded, and also can't somehow be as moving as (or even more so than) a scripted dramatic interpretation.
An absorbing peek into the circumstances of people whose stories usually get filtered in movies.
A tough but deeply rewarding watch. Search it out.
I can't recall a documentary shaped quite this way. Dennis handles it with integrity, and the effect is painful and deeply moving.
This pulls no punches.
Flashbacks, overlapping sound and dynamic editing viscerally convey Harris' state of mind, leaving a bleak picture of the struggle to win the Afghani people's trust.
has the artistry of a painting and the impact of a sucker punch.
Doesn't offer up much information, but carves out a sturdy slice of life portrait
Dennis, a photojournalist, has produced a vérité work of almost distracting beauty-a haunting quality in a film that operates in the apolitical mode of choice for recent combat docs, but is nevertheless inarguably about the cost of war.
Just as necessary and cinematic as Restrepo ... brilliantly structures the story of a Marine's homecoming so that the war footage functions like flashback sequences.
Possibly the best war movie of the year
Audience Reviews for Hell and Back Again
Super Reviewer
It has one of the most stirring opening montages I have ever seen in a documentary. It only lasts about 6 seconds, but it brilliantly sets up the rest of the film. Sadly, the film doesn't live up to the promise of the opening, but is still an important look at the modern veteran.
The filmmakers use sound to great effect, layering the sounds of combat over the minutiae of every day life. Showing that even though a soldier may leave the battle, the battle never leaves the soldier.
Also, and much more subtly, Harris is shown being escorted by his wife through a maze of shopping malls, fast-food restaurants, and packed parking lots. Harris is visibly frustrated by this way of life that appears more emotionally taxing than the front lines. Begging the question, what exactly are we fighting for over there?
Super Reviewer
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