49 Pulses

I was terribly disappointed in this. It turned into a show blaming the police for everything that went wrong. I usually love documentaries but this was a waste of time. I didn't finish watching it.

Some reviewers are upset because survivors were upset about how long it took police to save the remaining victims however it's still an important documentary to watch. Never blame the victims for their feelings and most importantly it helps law enforcement with future training. I am happy that I watched this powerful documentary despite its monstrous tragedy.

Charlie Minn's documentaries are pretty good up until the half way point. That's when he starts to blame police instead of the person that committed the crime. It's apparently his formula for documentaries.

1 - show details of tragedy 2 - talk about the victims (bravo by the way) 3 - start blaming and questioning police.

I think for the next horrific event we get Charlie Minn strapped up to go in immediately because he apparently knows best how to deal with these psychopaths.

49 Pulses (2017)

*** (out of 4)

This is a rather depressing documentary that takes a look at the Orlando Pulse club shooting, which had a maniac killing forty-nine people. This documentary features interviews with survivors, re-enactments of the events as well as family members of those who didn't make it out.

49 PULSES is certainly a strong documentary and one that's certainly sad to watch. The documentary really did a great job at explaining the terror that was happening inside the club that night including some really dramatic interviews with the survivors. There's no doubt that the strongest part of the film were the interviews because you can see the pain and fear in the voices and eyes in those who lived.

The documentary certainly doesn't shy away from the pain that the survivors have but we also get some nice tributes to some of the people who didn't survive. All of this was extremely good stuff and there's no doubt that the heart of the film is in the right place as it wants to support the people who were killed.

With that being said, if you're familiar with the work of director Charlie Minn then you will know that he's a cop hating guy. There's really no other way to put it but he hates the police and wants to blame them for everything so there's a lot of hatred shown to the police and how they handled the situation. In fact, the police get more blame than the actual shooter so that should tell you all you need to know.

Even with that being said, the film is still worth watching as long as you can put up with the sadness that is there.

I want to believe that Minn's heart is in the right place, but with this more than any of his other documentaries I've seen, I really don't know.

This one went through the motions and just felt a bit off, even if it does, in a sense, provide a platform for survivors of the shooting to tell their story and pay tribute to those who were killed.

But I've seen numerous films by Minn now where he takes a similar approach to covering various tragedies shortly after they happen, and while the intentions are hopefully good, there's just something under the surface that feels a bit off, and there's a chance (cynical as it may be to think so) that he's not making these for the right reasons.

A middle of the road rating might be the best way to represent how it could go either way, for me (of course the by the numbers presentation and editing does few favours for its overall rating, too)