Hell and Back Again is a cinematically revolutionary film about the conflict in Afghanistan. Two overlapping narratives are brilliantly intercut — the life of a Marine at war on the front, and the life the same Marine in recovery, at home — creating both a dreamlike quality and a strikingly realistic depiction of how Marines experience this war. Following Sergeant Nathan Harris of Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, during a major assault on a Taliban stronghold, and his painful return home after a severe injury, the two stories communicate both the extraordinary drama of war and the no less shocking experience of returning home.