Oscar Movie with Abe: Hell and Back Again

Hell and Back Again
Directed by Danfung Dennis
Released October 5, 2011



This Oscar nominee for Best Documentary, now available on DVD, is a harrowing, depressing exploration of one man’s life following his injured return from service in Afghanistan. This is one case where the camera seems omnipresent abroad as the soldiers talk to the local people, tell them not to worry and apologize to them for the security procedures they are enforcing. It’s one of a number of films, along with last year’s Oscar-nominated short doc “Poster Girl” and last week’s new narrative feature “Return,” that makes the case for this recent war being a transformative, traumatizing experience. The film has an important point, but by letting its subjects speak so freely for themselves, it doesn’t offer as much of a perspective as could have been helpful and interesting.

B-