American Manhunt: l'attentato alla maratona di Boston

The elder brother did not make the Olympic trials not because he was Muslim, but simply because he was not a US citizen. His father probably did not know this when boasting that his son would represent their adopted country in boxing. While the documentary expertly stitches together the footage of events, and testimonies from police, FBI, victims and journalists, it fails to spend enough time scrutinising the parents, who separated and abandoned their sons to return to Dagestan. Why did they return to Dagestan and what about their other two children?

The younger brother was described as charismatic and popular in high school but photos of him revealed an emptiness in his eyes. The charm was nothing more than a facade and survival strategy of someone who was not emotionally nourished by his family or community. It seems no coincidence that the both brothers chose to participate and identify with violent sports, instead of taking up chess or tennis. They were the product of inter-generational trauma that began with their grandfather being persecuted for being Chechen and resulted in their father's narcissism.

The father needed his children to be successful in their new country and pushed both sons to achieve. It was the shame from letting his father down by failing to make the Olympic trials that drove the elder brother to radicalisation. He could not blame his father for having lofty expectations so instead he blamed his adopted country and its Islamophobia, and recruited his own brother to his misguided cause. He could not see the forest for the trees, unlike Danny Meng who is himself a migrant from an oppressive nation and appreciates the opportunities in America in spite of the racism he will inevitably encounter.

So I'll start by sharing that the documentary coverage of this tragic event was well done. They did a great job of capturing the horror and trauma of the victims. The viewer is able to really get inside the emptions and shock felt by those present and those impacted by what happened. My heart truly goes out to the victims of this horrible act of terrorism. Another positive is the coverage of the investigation and manhunt for the perpetrators. I thought they did an excellent job of capturing this thing from the perspective of those in law enforcement. But I will say that the choices of some of the other commentary were just horrible. One prime example is the investigative journalist (Phillip Martin). I'm sorry, but this guy was just a joke. Every single thing he said was sharply slanted against law enforcement. He was so painfully transparent in his hate for law enforcement, with nothing but sharp criticism for every single thing they did. The law enforcement officials were tasked with such an incredibly difficult job in this scenario. You can't blame the police because a bomber is shooting at them. Are they not supposed to shoot back? Wasn't it their primary job to bring in the perpetrators and stop them from taking any more acts of terror? If they hadn't caught these guys, who knows what they'd have done next. The investigative journalist obviously had no clue at all about what it's like to be taking fire and putting your life on the line to stop a terrorist. They also interviewed one of the friends of the younger bomber, and he was angered when they finally caught him because they thought he might be dead. How inconceivably insensitive to the victims of these guys' horrible act! Anyway, these views really bothered me and completely turned me off whenever these interviewees opened their mouths. Other than that, it was a good ducumentary about this situation.

Generally this was a good documentary, not wasting your time, to the point and telling the story from many different perspectives such as the victims, police, fbi, etc. It does miss more proper investigation into their family and actually talking to the perpetrator though.

I would have rated this much higher, if it wasn't for some of their extremely out of place interviewees as Phillip Martin. He's a "journalist" who does nothing but complain about law enforcement, much more concerned about the well-being of the perpetrator than any victim. His narrow-minded ideologies are just glowing. Secondly we have the muslim friend who's also much more concerned about muslims getting a bad reputation, than innocent people getting killed or actually having muslims commit less terrorism. We all know Netflix added these for DEI. It only drags down the integrity of the rest of the series.

That being said. If you can ignore those parts, the rest is a good retelling of the investigation following the bombing.

This three-part series is a broad and profound look into the events, and people, connected with the bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon. It's an especially interesting character study of those who were responsible for the bombing, and of those who were most affected on the day of the Marathon- and the week that followed. The actual terrorists, the local Boston Police, the FBI, along with the local and National Media, are all examined and well represented. Those who were interviewed all have very intriguing stories to tell. Extremely well edited and produced with emotional testimonies. It was compelling from start to finish. I highly recommend this docuseries as it was well worth the three hours. I give it a strong 8. If you're even remotely interested to know what happened at the 2013 Boston Marathon, watch this, right now.

Other than having viewed other documentaries, and a recent drama tv-series about the triple murder that happened a few months before the marathon bombings, that this maybe one of the sturdiest and most neutral of them all.

Based on interviews of victims, runners, friends and law enforcement , a massive surge of new reels and amateur footage and stills, and lets not forget the terrible heartshooting sounds of screams and the shootouts from the manhunt.

What i miss though , is the part that i find most peculiar that they do not air, is the lack of interviews from the initial custodial moments, there must be hundreds of hours of search and research from the criminologists and psychologists that mustve interviewed the culprit, and this documentary doesnt give you a clue what happened in the courts. That should be the next story to tell for us non bostoners and non citizens of the usa(im norwegian).

Im not calling out for an hero, cause that is of course all the massachutinarians, but a bit more of the works of miss justicia wouldnt harm the case. As a conclusion i would say that matters of this kind will never come to an end, and im afraid that something like this will happen again. So in the mean time my message to the survivors and the people that lost loved ones, STAY STRONG FOREVER, and stay together in the memory of the deceased.

Well made and intense documentary, a recommend from the grumpy old man.