By Tim Bullard
The Oscars included a Marine and his wife from Camp LeJeune,
and Friday night a Wal-Mart greeter featured in the Academy Award nominated
film about them, “Hell and Back Again,” said why she hugged Sgt. Nathan Harris.
“Why did I want to do that? Because he’s my hero,” she said,
wondering where she can find the movie. “He fought for my country. That was
about two years ago. He fought for my country and my freedom.”
Rick Elliott of Elliott Realty and his staff in North Myrtle
Beach, S.C. have given Harris and his wife, Ashley, a free week at the beach to
honor his service and her allegiance to him.
Remember the Bush surge? Harris was right in the thick of
it. “The world will remember what you do here this summer,” the Marines’
commander tells them in a pep talk. Later Harris and the men found a lot of
insurgents shooting at them. One Marine was killed.
In the movie Harris is shown at a Winston-Salem Wal-Mart on
Kester Mill Road hugging the greeter, trying out the new Halo game. When Harris
said the Marines asked him why he wanted to join, he told them because he
wanted to kill people, and he said he was told that was the best answer he
could have given.
Harris finds himself trying to cope with difficulties in
civilian life, wishing he was back in-country. He wears an Affliction Clothing
T-shirt in the movie.
Harris and his wife appeared on CNN the morning of the
awards.
“I was initially shot by an enemy machine gun,” he said.
“The bullet did a significant amount of damage. The exit wound from the round
was actually 24 inches. It was right where my femur meets my hip.” The doctor
told him he would have a year before things were back near normal.
It was difficult for him returning home. He wanted to be
back in-country rather than in a Wal-Mart parking lot, doing mundane tasks and
making new decisions.
Mrs. Harris talked
about the struggles. Her husband seemed different. There was frustration and
anger.
“I guess the best way to explain it was I had kind of gotten
used to it. It was the third deployment we’ve had,” she said. “Each time he
came back he was a little bit different. It’s almost like learning someone new
again. I had been away from him, and he had been away from me also. He had to
learn me again also. You have to look at it as you love each other, and you’ve
made this commitment, and no matter what you’re there, and you’re going to
stick through no matter what.”
There were times when they argued about medication.
The director looked for Harris when a bus arrived with Echo
Company, but Harris was not there since he had been wounded two weeks prior.
When Harris returned home, he invited the director to his home in Yadkinville,
N.C.
“I grew up in Ithaca, New York,” said Dennis. “I studied
Applied Economics at Cornell University, also in my hometown.”
There was an influential moment that pushed him to make this
movie.
“When I learned a photographer friend was killed in Libya, I
was flooded by feelings of rage, sadness, helplessness and isolation. I thought
of my other friends and colleagues that have lost their lives while doing their
job. It all seemed utterly senseless.
“Unless you have a personal connection, war is an
abstraction. After nearly 10 years since the initial invasion of Afghanistan,
the daily bombings and ongoing violence has become mundane, almost ordinary. It
is tempting to become indifferent to the horror and pain. IT is much easier to
look away from the victims. It is much easier to lead a life without rude
interruptions from couples insurgencies in distant lands. But it is when we
take this easier path, the suffering becomes of no consequence and therefore
meaningless. The anguish becomes invisible, an abstraction. It is when society
becomes numb to inhumanity, horror is allowed to spread in darkness.
“Visual imagery can be a powerful medium for truth. The
images of napalmed girls screaming by Nick Ut, the street execution of a
Vietcong prisoner by Eddie Adams, the shell-shocked soldier by Don McCullin,
these iconic images have burned into our collective consciousness as reminders
of war’s consequences.
“But this visual language is dying. The traditional outlets
are collapsing. In the midst of this upheaval, we must invent a new language. I
am attempting to combine the power of the still image with advanced technology
to change the vernacular of photojournalism and filmmaking.”
“Through my film I hope to shake people from their
indifference to war, and to bridge the disconnect between the realities on the
ground and the public consciousness at home. By bearing witness and shedding light
on another’s pain and despair, I am trying to invoke our humanity and a
response to act. Is it possible that war is an archaic and primitive human
behavior that society is capable of advancing past? Is it possible that the
combination of photojournalism, filmmaking and technology can plead for peace
and contribute to this future? It is these possibilities that motivate me to
risk life and limb.”
Dennis received important advice during his career.
“I’m inspired by the work of past war photographers. It was
the tradition of witnessing and documenting important events so that others
could understand the truth that moved me to first go to Afghanistan in 2006. I
still remember opening the book ‘Inferno’ by James Nachtwey. These images of
conflict seared into my consciousness. He was bearing witness, showing the
mistakes we were making and reminding us not to repeat them. Shooting these
inhumanities was a moral act on his part, images could impact people and change
how they think.”
The biggest challenge for him was his camera.
“I shot ‘Hell and Back Again’ on a Canon 5D Mark II, a
stills camera that was not intended to shoot feature films, especially in the
dust and heat on the front lines. I had to build a custom camera system to use
it in these extreme conditions. Even then, there were major problems. The
camera shut itself off every few minutes after overheating in the 130-degree
heat of Afghanistan. There really wasn’t any way around this. I only had one
camera body, so I would just limit to only shooting at the most important
times. It was frustrating when I could not film some of the most interesting
moments as the camera would shut itself off. There was nothing I could do
except let it cool.
“Another challenge of a completely different kind was
attaining the level of intimacy required shooting with Nathan and Ashley back
at their home in North Carolina. I lived with Nathan and Ashley during his
recovery, and his transition back into a community that had very little idea of
what he had just been through. I think that transition was almost more
difficult than what happened on the battlefield. Because I had been on these
offensives with Nathan, I already had his trust and respect, but it was more
difficult with Ashley, and it took time for her to become comfortable with the
camera and to trust my intentions to tell their story as truthfully and
honestly as possible.”
Director Danfung Dennis was embedded in Echo Company, and he
followed Harris home to North Carolina after Harris was shot. Willie Nelson’s
music is in the film. It has already won the Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Filmmaker
Award. This movie won a World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance
Film Festival. Even though the movie failed in the Oscar race, its sales on
DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes are doing well.
Dennis skillfully intertwines the firefight footage with the
Harris couple’s struggle when they get home to Yadkinville, N.C.
The New York Times called the film, “Astonishing! A tour de
force that breaks new ground.” You will wince during the firefights and smile
at Harris at points as he treats people like the greeter with polite Southern
manners. “It’s okay. I’m home now,” he told the greeter in Winston-Salem.
It was in 2009 the Marines launched a major helicopter
assault on a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, according to Docurama
Films. Harris was 25, and his unit was attacked from all sides deep behind enemy
lines.
It was 130 degrees, and water was running out as Harris
handed the director his last bottle of water on Machine Gun Hill.
Dennis said, “He was this courageous platoon leader who was
at the tip of the spear of this entire battle.”
It was a Taliban machine gun round that made him almost
bleed to death. Last night I ate at the Cookout the Harris couple ate at in the
movie. This film is supporting Hope for the Warriors online at www.hopeforthewarriors.org on the
web.
Also it supports www.veteranscrisisline.net
on the web for those vets suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. The
film is now on iTunes and Netflix.
The movie is 88 minutes and unrated. Harris is now at the
Wounded Warrior Regiment at Camp Lejeune.
In the movie the confused Afghan citizens seem to be
befuddled as to why the American troops cannot understand they do not want them
there, going through their homes, scaring the children. One leading U.S.
military spokesman tried to explain they will be gone as soon as possible, but
they need to work together. These personnel members are expected to be
ambassadors of good will as well as military operators.
Netflix describes the film as “gritty.”
Semper Fidelis.
