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As others have said this is not any easy watch. Perhaps more so for those of us that were there. Why? Because this is a straight, factual account that simply rings true.

The American perspective is not my own. I was there as an Australian. We too had our homegrown SDS, Weathermen, and antiwar protest groups. When there, I dont really remember anyone who honestly thought we should be there. But there we were. Even the CIA advisers in Saigon, Bien hoa, Vung Tau and well, elsewhere, were of a similar view, in my recollection.

I've recently gone through an illness that has brought all this back into focus. I've shared with folk things I have never spoken off, for the first time. Apologies for oversharing here, but I guess it is important to some of us when this experience has remained with us for ever, and where we just don't speak about it.

This documentary speaks for us. It doesn't propagandize. It doesn't engrandize. It doesn't sensationalize. It is however remarkably well done.

It is a must see for any student of history if for no other reason than we will all have to deal with both Iraq and Afghanistan in a not so dissimilar manner as well.

I lived through this. Even visited Netscape in New York while working for SGWarburg in the UK. The senior analyst working on the floor above me sold his Mozilla (his name of the source) code to a young guy in the US for what we were lead to believe was roughly 10k pounds.. We used to tease him about it. So, perhaps the original premise of the origination is perhaps a tad skewed.

I still have the the original documentation encapsulating the beyond browser technical specs for a hybrid between browsers and email which indeed my team created, which in turn became Outlook after our MS partners stole it. It really is plain to see were you to simply look at the original specs. So the documentary is absolutely accurate in how aggressive MS was back in the day.

I actually employed a Pixelon senior technician. He became an SGWarburg director, which trust me was not all it was cracked up to be. He turned out to be a wife beater and ended up in an Californian jail after being tracked down and extradited for previous misdemeanors to a female employee in the US. Which kind of summarises the Pixelon culture. Go #MeToo.

As a production presenting the times this rendition is both mildly inaccurate and entirely American centric. The internet after all was not invented by Americans, DARPA not withstanding. Oddly it was actually one of these rare things that came out of a bipartisan collaboration originating in Switzerland. But hey, far be it for me to attempt to represent an actual representation of the history I worked through, participated in and indeed continue to retain original documentation defining the instigation inherent in the actuality of this period.

This production is worthy. Perhaps it will encourage viewers to look further.

This is, in style, 'Aguirre, the Wrath of God'. Not better. Not so different either. It is however, an incredibly good rendition of this very minimalist sub genre.

I imagine if Herzog were to view this film he would chuckle and, like me, be perhaps mildly disappointed in the last 5 seconds or so.

Reviews have been mixed. Some have called this art house. Its not really. Its a tad too visceral for that (it would probably offend many of the more touchy feely art house crowd). There is very little dialog. Almost every point made in this production is made through either body language or facial expression. The spoken points are, like in 'Aguirre', there to demonstrate cultural norms of the various antagonists as all characters in this story are antagonists with the possible but dubious exception of the boy.

If you are looking for entertainment, look elsewhere. If you wish to immerse yourself in something very unusual that you may well remember for many years dive in on a cold winters night with the rain lashing against your windows. Its extraordinary.