HELL AND BACK AGAIN Movie Reviews

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Story: Documentary about a young Marine sergeant who tries to readjust to civilian life after being seriously wounded in Afghanistan. Cast: Danfung Dennis, Nathan Harris, Ashley Harris Director: Danfung Dennis Opened: October 5, 2011 On DVD: January 24, 2012 From: Docurama Films Length: 1 hr. 28 min.
Out On DVD
JANUARY 24, 2012
Hell and Back Again, Excellent Reviews (Doc) Limited
Updated: Thu, Jan 5 2012, 05:36pm
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Hell and Back Again played in limited release to excellent reviews. • Andrew O'Hehir wrote for Salon, "...a lyrical and humane film in the finest documentary tradition, which honors its subjects by telling their story with great dignity and painful clarity and leaving judgment to history." • And Lauren Wissot wrote for Slant, "...isn't content to merely capture warriors in combat.... becomes a universal soldier's story."   More Reviews Below...

Hell and Back Again
Positive Reviews
(16 Reviews, click on headers for reviews)
 Compare This Movie... 
TotalBroad
National
Press
Local
News-
papers
Alter–
native/
Indie
High-
Brow
Press
Movie
Industry
NY/LA
Chicago
Toronto
Key
Cities
Total
B.O.
81.7% nr 80.6% 79.9% 83.8% 85.3% 82.4% 80.6% $38K
Averages: 51.7% 54.1% 52.3% 46.8% 45.5% 48.6% 49.8% 54.6%
Reviews & Quotes (16)

BROAD NATIONAL PRESS (0 Reviews)
 Hell and Back Again has not been reviewed by Broad National Press
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (6 Reviews)
Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: VERY GOOD
"...more unvarnished and ambiguous [than other wounded-in-Iraq-or-Afghanistan-accounts], which makes it more disturbing.... You can feel just how jarring and stressful it must be for a soldier to go from the life-and-death adrenaline rush of war to the maddeningly slow world of rehabilitation and forced inactivity." (Read the full review...)
307 words, 10/05/11

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: EXCELLENT (cg)
"As vital as the best war chronicles to come out in recent years... one every American ought to see." (Read the full review...)
147 words, 10/07/11

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING
"...a full-circle portrait of rare psychological immediacy and even rarer aesthetic command..." (Read the full review...)
254 words, 10/14/11

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: VERY GOOD (cg)
"[Director Danfung] Dennis refuses to push a political agenda down viewers' throats. But the message of his film -- a breathlessly paced look at the realities of war -- is clear: War and its aftermath are indeed hell." (Read the full review...)
364 words, 10/05/11

Michelle Orange, Village Voice/LA Weekly: EXCELLENT
"...unblinking is the focus on [Afghanistan war vet Nathan] Harris's desperation to get back to what he was trained since the age of 18 to do: killing people.... Shot in stunning, khaki-crisp digital with the Canon 5D Mark II, a Marine's eyes have never looked this blue, nor blood so red." (Read the full review...)
305 words, 10/05/11
KEY CITIES (4 Reviews)
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: VERY GOOD (cg)
"...packs a lot into a little documentary, switching between intense Afghan war footage and scenes of the slower-moving, but no less intense, stateside recovery of its subject, wounded Marine Sgt. Nathan Harris. It's filled, quite literally, with blood, sweat and tears." (Read the full review...)
542 words, 11/18/11

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: OUTSTANDING (cg)
"...a superb, violent, jarring and daring documentary about the war in Afghanistan, 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." (Read the full review...)
217 words, 11/04/11

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: OUTSTANDING (cg)
"...an ingenious artistic disturbance. It's a combat film and a coming-home movie.... [Danfung] Dennis's film attempts something few documentaries have: to inhabit the psyche of its subject." (Read the full review...)
827 words, 01/06/12

Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: VERY GOOD (cg)
"...may be the closest most civilians ever get to the reality of the war in Afghanistan..." (Read the full review...)
171 words, 10/21/11
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (5 Reviews)
Michelle Orange, Village Voice/LA Weekly: EXCELLENT
"...unblinking is the focus on [Afghanistan war vet Nathan] Harris's desperation to get back to what he was trained since the age of 18 to do: killing people.... Shot in stunning, khaki-crisp digital with the Canon 5D Mark II, a Marine's eyes have never looked this blue, nor blood so red." (Read the full review...)
305 words, 10/05/11

Gerald Peary, Boston Phoenix: OUTSTANDING (cg)
"...a potent documentary correlative to the narrative of 'The Hurt Locker'.... the real-life story of a young marine, Sergeant Nathan Harris, who is brilliant and an inspiring leader in battle but lost and dazed on the home front..." (Read the full review...)
132 words, 01/05/12

Alison Willmore, AV Club: VERY GOOD (cg)
"...a devastating profile of a soldier." (Read the full review...)
444 words, 10/06/11

Lauren Wissot, Slant: GOOD (NOT GREAT) (cg)
"...isn't content to merely capture warriors in combat.... follows an injured Sgt. Nathan Harris all the way from Afghanistan to his home in North Carolina, where his wife and high school sweetheart Ashley is helping to reconstruct their former lives.... becomes a universal soldier's story." (Read the full review...)
616 words, 10/02/11
HIGHBROW PRESS (3 Reviews)
Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: VERY GOOD
"...more unvarnished and ambiguous [than other wounded-in-Iraq-or-Afghanistan-accounts], which makes it more disturbing.... You can feel just how jarring and stressful it must be for a soldier to go from the life-and-death adrenaline rush of war to the maddeningly slow world of rehabilitation and forced inactivity." (Read the full review...)
307 words, 10/05/11

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING
"...a full-circle portrait of rare psychological immediacy and even rarer aesthetic command..." (Read the full review...)
254 words, 10/14/11

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon: OUTSTANDING
"...a lyrical and humane film in the finest documentary tradition, which honors its subjects by telling their story with great dignity and painful clarity and leaving judgment to history." (Read the full review...)
909 words, 10/06/11
MOVIE INDUSTRY (4 Reviews)
Robert Koehler, Daily Variety: VERY GOOD
"...vigorously embraces a grunt's eye view of war and its aftereffects.... It's the achievement of 'Hell and Back Again' that what sounds to the civilian like macho boasting or emotional cover is in fact the honest truth." (Read the full review...)
523 words, 01/25/11

Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter: OUTSTANDING
"...gut-wrenching, tender... brilliantly edited by Fiona Otway, who interconnects the Afghan front-line battle scenes with the home-front struggles with coherent eloquence." (Read the full review...)
549 words, 01/30/11

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING
"...a full-circle portrait of rare psychological immediacy and even rarer aesthetic command..." (Read the full review...)
254 words, 10/14/11

Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: VERY GOOD
"...more unvarnished and ambiguous [than other wounded-in-Iraq-or-Afghanistan-accounts], which makes it more disturbing.... You can feel just how jarring and stressful it must be for a soldier to go from the life-and-death adrenaline rush of war to the maddeningly slow world of rehabilitation and forced inactivity." (Read the full review...)
307 words, 10/05/11
(cg) = based on the critic's grade

Review Mixture
11.2 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews
(Norm is 18.3pp; <18.3pp = More Consistent; >18.3pp = More Mixed)

Hell and Back Again's reviews are separated by an average 11.2 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.3 percentage points. Less than 18.3 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.3 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.

Hell and Back Again
(16 reviews, roll over dots for each review)
Broad National   Alternative/Indie   Highbrow Press   Key Cities
NY, LA, Chicago, & Toronto Movie Industry  
Outstanding
Very Good
Good
Moderate
Weak
Poor
Outstanding
Very Good
Good
Moderate
Weak
Poor
Big
Publications
>Bigger
Publications
>Biggest
Publications
Coverage, Volume & Length

Coverage: Hell and Back Again's reviews cover 16.6% of potential readers (average is 67.6%). Volume: The film's reviews total 6,612 words in volume (average is 19,818 words). Length: The film's reviews average 413 words in length (the norm is 510 words).

Hell and Back Again
Coverage, Volume & Length
(16 Reviews, click on headers for reviews)
TotalBroad
National
Press
Local
News-
papers
Alter–
native/
Indie
High-
Brow
Press
Movie
Industry
NY/LA
Chicago
Toronto
Key
Cities
Total
B.O.
Coverage:
Volume:
Length:
16.6%
6,612
413
0.0%
0
0
47.0%
2,829
354
59.5%
1,802
360
35.9%
1,470
490
66.7%
1,633
408
54.9%
1,682
280
37.1%
1,757
439
$38K
Averages: 67.6%
19,818
510
65.9%
3,094
445
80.1%
10,766
521
80.2%
3,169
422
58.6%
2,378
630
85.9%
3,434
688
84.0%
5,862
500
72.6%
2,906
540
Opening Day Reviews
Reviews Broke 12.8 Hours Before Release (Norm is 0.1 Release)

Hell and Back Again's reviews on average broke 12.8 hours before opening. Norm for this measure is 0.1 hours after. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Hell and Back Again's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.

Hell and Back Again
(16 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
M O R E    P O S I T I V E    R E V I E W S
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M O R E    N E G A T I V E    R E V I E W S
Movie Review Intelligence iPhone App, Version 1.3
Updated: Thu, Jan 5 2012, 05:36pm
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