“Not Yet Begun to Fight,” an award-winning documentary about the physical and psychological impact of war, will premier on Netflix this Veteran’s Day, Tuesday, November 11, 2014. National PBS had a limited run of the edited for television version of the film last year when it was selected by the New York Times as a broadcast highlight for the week. The film has received high critical praise, hailed as “…humbling and insightful” (Leonard Maltin), “…deeply moving” (Hollywood Reporter) and “…a lyrical meditation on war and nature” (LA Times). Additionally, the film was hand picked by Roger Ebert to be one of 12 feature films shown at Eberfest in 2012, the late critic’s last personally curated event.
“Not Yet Begun to Fight” focuses on five warriors who join retired Marine Colonel Eric Hastings, who heads the local non-profit Warriors and Quiet Waters, for a week of fly-fishing. Hastings, who flew missions “high above the death and destruction” in Vietnam, returned home to Montana in 1969 battling dark dreams. His solace was fishing. “When I came back from combat, I found I needed relief, and the more I went fly-fishing, the more I knew I needed more of it,” he recalls. “It became an absolute desperate physical and mental need. I had to do it, or I was going to kill someone.”
Directors and Bozeman residents Shasta Grenier and Sabrina Lee shadow Colonel Hastings as he reaches out to a new generation of traumatized combat veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Hastings knows too well that the war is never over for those who fight. On the rivers of Montana, with a fly rod in hand, he shares the balm that soothed his wounds: “Fly-fishing is a series of opportunities for hope,” he says, “This river healed me.”
He leads five remarkable, intense, and vulnerable young men (three marines, a soldier and a Navy SEAL) to the quiet waters of Montana. His mission is to help them find their way through the space between the war they have just left behind and the new battles they face.
“The hardest thing, and this probably goes for just about any wounded warrior out there, is having to learn every little thing all over again,” says Elliott Miller, a Navy SEAL featured in the film who now communicates with the automated voice of an iPad. “Only this time, where you were once an able, barrel-chested freedom fighter and proud, now you are broken and weak and humble. And so it just adds a whole new level of difficulty to it.”
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Producer/Co-Director Sabrina Lee remarked about the Netflix launch, “This represents a tremendous opportunity to share the film with a wider audience, and we are thrilled to do so.” Lee also noted that the film, which is available through various Video On Demand outlets, can be rented on Veteran’s Day through iTunes for a special price of $0.99.
Virgil Films President Joe Amodei added, “We are overjoyed to release such an important film to the broader marketplace. “Not Yet Begun to Fight” is a powerful, emotional and inspiring film that takes no sides and promotes no political agenda.”
To learn more about the film, visit the website at www.notyetbeguntofightfilm.com.
