Hell and Back Again (2011, documentary) - Intimate Afghanistan veteran documentary

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Calm suburbia and the dangerous foreign land of Afghanistan each have half of this poster for Danfung Dennis' Hell and Back Again

We focus on three-time Afghanistan veteran, the 26 year-old Marine Nathan Harris, who returns home to the States with a disability for a hard rehabilitation and morphine treatment.

Hell and Back Again is a war documentary by debuting Danfung Dennis (This Is Climate Change (2018, short)).

It is an observational portrayal of some of the work that went into the Afghanistan War, wherein one of the world's richest countries, and certainly the mightiest, waged war on one of the world's poorest. Watching Hell and Back Again, it is impossible not to sympathize with Harris, who carries both goodness and madness in himself. The film has a scene with a priest that is especially moving.

The title remains something of a postulate; the reality of Harris' situation seems to swallow the dramatic narrative, and perhaps the discrepancy is intentional, as it calls attention to veterans struggling with disabilities and PTSD upon their homecoming.

 

Dennis talks about the making of the film in an interview here

 

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 40k $

= Uncertain - but theatrically probably a mega-flop (projected return of 0.4 times the cost)

[Hell and Back Again premiered in January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 88 minutes. Dennis was a war photographer in Afghanistan in 2006 and became disillusioned with the task and moved towards video. He met Harris during time with Marines in Afghanistan in 2009 and fixed on him, reportedly spending a year with Harris and his wife. The film opened #95 to a 3k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #80 and in 3 theaters, grossing 40k $. The film's only other recorded market was the UK, where it made less than 1k $. If made on a tiny 100k $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop. The film was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar, lost to Undefeated. It was also nominated for a British Independent Film award and an Independent Spirit award and won 2 awards at Sundance, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review. Dennis has not returned with a feature since; he has however made 3 documentary shorts. Hell and Back Again is fresh at 100 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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