Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down Is A Documentary About Heroes In Civilians’ Clothing
A blazer. A brooch. A tie. Even an astronaut suit. These are just some of the items worn by Gabby Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly.
At first glance, Giffords and Kelly are perhaps best described as a political power couple that have spent the last decade in the public eye, largely due to personal tragedy. But in the new documentary, “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down”, it becomes clear that they are also heroes in disguise - two individuals who have found joy in life and love despite all odds being stacked against them, and who have dedicated themselves to making Americans’ lives better every single day.
People around the country remember January 8th, 2011, when then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head at a meet-and-greet with constituents in Tucson, Arizona, in a shooting which left 6 individuals dead. Though the shooter intended to assassinate her, Giffords miraculously survived.
Yet to this day, few have been privy to Giffords’s long and difficult road to recovery. Through home video footage, replicas of her x-rays, and even interviews with her medical team, the documentary sheds light on the countless surgeries and therapies that have allowed Giffords to live the seemingly normal life she lives today. Yet I place tremendous emphasis on the word seemingly - Giffords’s right side continues to be largely paralyzed, and though her cognitive functions are fully present, she suffers from aphasia, a condition that makes it difficult to speak. As Giffords herself describes it, her words are usually at the tip of her tongue, but she struggles immensely to get them out.
But what makes the documentary so remarkable is that it manages to be positive and uplifting despite following an otherwise harrowing story - and that is largely due to the fact that Gabby Giffords is positive and uplifting. She has turned her story into a mission to end gun violence in the United States, and though that has proven to be a daunting task, she hasn’t lost her drive to get it done. (It should be noted that the documentary takes a nuanced approach to Giffords’s advocacy. It mentions openly that she and her husband are gun owners, and even shows Giffords learning how to shoot with her left hand after her right one was paralyzed in the attempted assassination.) Even when her non-profit puts together gut-wrenching displays, such as the 40,000 white roses for gun violence victims placed on the national mall and featured in the doc, Giffords manages to motivate and uplift everyone within earshot of her speeches.
Yet the film’s tone is also due to the work of directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen, who from its inception were dedicated to making it an inspirational film as opposed to a depressing one. At one point, they emphasize her progress by juxtaposing footage of Giffords right after her injury, unable to sing a word of “Happy Birthday,” with footage of a recent birthday where she sings it loud and clear. They also feature in-depth interviews with former President Barack Obama, a close friend of Giffords and Kelly, whose compliments of Giffords, combined with his overall charisma, play a huge part in setting a positive tone for the doc.
While the film undoubtedly centers around Giffords, what I actually found most touching was the journey of her astronaut husband, Mark Kelly. At the time of his wife’s injury, Kelly was at the high point of his career, about to command the last mission of the Endeavor spacecraft. The shooting shook up his plans, but remarkably, he and Giffords decided that he should still command the mission just a few months later. In the documentary, he describes performing a complex landing of the spacecraft at the exact same moment that Giffords was in brain surgery. How one man managed to handle both of these events at the same time continues to astound me.
That mission was Kelly’s last, and he retired from NASA and the Navy soon after to take care of Gabby full time. In a country where women continue to bear the burden of caregiving, I found Kelly’s move to be remarkable - as much as I hope that in the future it won’t be that special. In a true moment of artistry, the documentary goes through a montage of Kelly caring for Giffords, as we hear audio of her rehearsing a sentence over and over for a TV appearance: Marriage is a commitment.
And that commitment goes both ways, as the film chronicles Kelly’s 2020 senate run–a move he describes as finishing what Giffords started–which is entirely guided by his wife. She opens for him at events, trains him in how to deliver political speeches, and even goes in front of the camera to tape commercials for his campaign (which is no easy feat given her aphasia). At the end of the day, Giffords and Kelly’s love story is one for the ages, and making that storyline a central point of the film brought it beauty and meaning.
When I left the theater at the end of the movie, the first words I said to my loved ones were, “I feel privileged to have sat in the audience of that film.” Situated at the perfect crossroads of poignant and inspirational, it not only made me feel honored to have watched Gabby Giffords’s and Mark Kelly’s story, but it also made me feel grateful to live in the same era as these giants. “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” reminded me of what it means to advocate for change, and inspired me to believe that with the right people behind it, even the toughest of change can be achieved.
Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down is playing in select theaters.
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