In 2011, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords survived an assassination attempt that left her partially paralyzed and unable to walk. Tracing her recovery and activism, the title of Julie Cohen and Betsy West‘s documentary “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” pretty much says it all. A portrait of Gifford’s resilience juxtaposed against the sheer institutional gridlock that accompanies any attempts at gun reform, Cohen and West’s film is most affecting when centered around Gifford’s recovery process and her relationship with her astronaut husband (and current congressman) Mark Kelly.
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Shot in the head by Jared Lee Loughner at a “Congress on Your Corner” gathering, in which Giffords quite literally hung out on a corner to talk to her constituents, Giffords was quickly rushed into emergency surgery and ultimately placed into a medically induced coma for her recovery. The first half of “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” traces her initial career as a moderate representative before her protracted recovery, which saw her have to essentially relearn how to process and speak English — often through song.
These home videos, shot by Kelly, showcase the profoundly personal toll that such a recovery took on Giffords and her family. Juxtaposed against these home videos are the national reaction and heartbreaking indifference, among some, to a shooting that left six others dead and nineteen injured.
If the first half of “Won’t Back Down” is about Giffords painstaking recovery, the film’s second half zooms out considerably. Tracking Giffords renewed political advocacy post-resignation, and her husband’s eventual run for a congressional seat in Arizona, Cohen and West use Gifford’s experience as a rallying cry for renewed action on gun legislation. Relying on interviews with Giffords, Kelly, and various friends and colleagues — including former President Obama — we are given an essential overview of the recent mass shootings and the apathy of many in Congress who are unwilling to do anything other than offer ‘thoughts and prayers.’
When Cohen and West move away from Giffords, the film loses its momentum, becoming less a singular portrait of Giffords’s remarkable recovery and more an abridged history of gun violence since 2011. Using NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre as the boogeyman he is, the second half of “Won’t Back Down” feels less personal and more scattered. However, this isn’t to say that what Cohen and West portray and argue for isn’t important. Instead, the film is at its strongest when personalizing and specifying what Giffords has gone through, not providing a snapshot overview of the various shootings — Sandy Hook, Parkland, Las Vegas, etc. — that are already burned into our national consciousness.
When the film eventually shifts to Mark Kelly’s race for Congress against the backdrop of the 2020 presidential election, the film trades its previous granular approach to Gifford’s life for a glorified campaign ad. This isn’t exactly a negative, as Kelly is a compelling presence. But for a film quite literally titled after Gabby Giffords, much more time is spent with her husband than one might expect.
Buried in the periphery are Giffords pre- and post-shooting life. Her transition from moderate to grassroots liberal is understandable but never fully contextualized. I found myself curious more about Giffords own positions before she became the face — and voice — of her nonprofit. Further, when her step-daughter hints at some personal friction between her and Giffords before the assassination attempt, we are given a glimpse into Giffords and Kelly’s private lives that the film quickly pivots away from, as the family understandably doesn’t seem willing to centralize the interpersonal dynamics between them.
“Gabby Giffords: Won’t Back Down” is a brisk and concise look at the titular congresswoman and, by extension, her husband. While it doesn’t necessarily break any new narrative ground and is perhaps a bit too generalized in its latter half, the film is still a compelling portrait of the Giffords and a depressing reminder of just how little we’ve actually accomplished since 2011. [B]
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