Remarkable Marine Couple Helps Close Out G.I. Film Festival

One of the most emotional films showing at this year’s G.I. Film Festival is less than 10 minutes long.

Director Mike Allen’s short “He’s My Best Friend: The Crystal Nicely Story” recalls the marital bond between a devoted wife and her quadruple amputee Marine husband.

Allen, whose “Homefront Heroes” series regularly salutes the military, says only a tiny percent of U.S. citizens really understand what members of the military and their families go through.

And that’s certainly the case regarding Todd and Crystal Nicely.

“He’s My Best Friend,” which helps wrap the fifth annual festival at 6:45 p.m. today at The Naval Heritage Center in Washington, describes how their marriage survived a horrific war time injury. Todd Nicely lost both his arms and legs after setting off an improvised explosive device while crossing a bridge in Afghanistan.

Allen first met the Nicelys at a barbecue held at The Walter Reed Army Medical Center where wounded veterans recuperate. He overhead Todd Nicely and his family playfully chatting, like any other clan might, only three months after the fateful explosion.

“If you closed your eyes, you’d never know Todd was injured,” Allen recalls. “There was no self pity. Todd’s grandfather was sitting there with all this pride, his chest puffed out.”

“I knew I wanted to capture that … through Crystal’s eyes,” he says.

The Nicelys were initially wary to talk to a filmmaker, but the more time Allen spent with them, the more they opened up.

Today’s G.I. Film Festival premiere represents the film’s biggest venue, but so far the reaction to the short has been “over the top,” Allen says. Whether audiences see the film at a festival or via the Internet, Allen hopes the message is heard loud and clear.

“I was interested in the inspirational aspects [of their story],” he says. “She never signed up for this … but there’s no way she’s not in it for the long haul.”