Free Documentaries Online

This post is the first in a series that deals with the 2012 Oscar Nominations for Best Documentary. My own pick for best documentary is Life In A Day – which was not nominated for anything. I was pretty shocked and so I licked my wounds and went and saw the documentaries that were nominated.

Hell and Back Again is one of my front-runners. It’s one of those documentaries where you think to yourself: “the director must have really been praying that something would happen to his protagonists. Good, bad, there must have been a secret hope for something newsworthy. In this case, he gets a classic and tragic tale of a solider returning home to his loving woman and then realizing that he’s not the same man that he was when he left.

Stationed in Afghanistan, Sgt. Nathan Harris hurts his leg and becomes an injured veteran. The trauma takes longer to heal than the leg – and both the leg and the man will never be the same again. This is a powerful story of the toll that war can take on our mighty soldiers and their loved ones.

I found the cinematography first rate: as good as any Spielberg war scene. Of course, this is real life. The documentary will not be nominated for best special effects: all of the explosions really happened. The pain is real, too.  Truth is usually more powerful than fiction – and more unbelievable – and this film is no different. Worth watching

You may be interested in:

1. 

   If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (OSCAR REVIEWS)
2. 

   Undefeated (OSCAR REVIEWS)
3. 

   Pina (OSCAR REVIEWS)
4. 

   Hell’s Angel