Oklahoma City

25 mins in and still no mention of the main perpetrator. Instead of summarising what angered and motivated Timothy McVeigh to commit the crimes the producers want to give you a detailed backstory. Sheesh! It's history now, just spit it out already😡

Until they quoted the Southern Poverty Law Center the end. Next time, try quoting a legitimate organization. And, much of the footage was rehashed from other documentaries.

The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995 is the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history; this documentary explores how a series of deadly encounters between American citizens and federal law enforcement - including the standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco - led to it.

There is the matter of what this film is and what it isn't. If you want a broad view of Ruby Ridge, Waco and Oklahoma City in under two hours, this is the perfect primer or refresher. However, if you want to learn more, and were around in the 1990s, there is very little here you did not already read in the news at the time.

I suppose if nothing else, this would be great for catching the younger generation up on what happened just twenty years ago, when "terrorism" and 9/11 were not yet synonymous.

"Oklahoma City" (2017 release; 115 min,) is a documentary about Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, and the wider background as to what roe him to do this. As the movie opens, it is "April 19, 1995, 9:02 am" and we her voices at the Water Resource Board Meeting, when an enormous explosion takes place. We get various historical footage as to the damage caused by the bombing, as well as first account interviews of first aid helpers, survivors, and family members of the perished, We then go back in time to the early 1980s, in northern Idaho, where white supremacists are gathering steam. As this point we're 10 min, into the movie, but to tell you more of the story would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is, to say the least, a sobering documentary, Built in three major chapters, "The Spark" (referring to Ruby Ridge), "The Flame" (referring to Waco) and "The Inferno" (referring to Oklahoma City), the documentary makers examine how right wing white supremacists were able to build a small but fierce resistance cell that becomes convinced that the federal government is "the enemy". The link between Ruby Ridge/Oklahoma City on the one hand, and Waco on the other hand, is less obvious (the Waco incident does not involve white supremacists), but nevertheless essential for the McVeigh narrative, as the documentary makes clear. McVeigh's personal background, fairly well known at this point, is examined as well. In the end, the lasting images of this documentary remain those of the Oklahoma City bombing itself, to this date still the largest domestic terrorist attack in this country's history, and with it the resolve of the survivors and the family of the perished. "Love is stronger than a terrorist attack", comments a survivor who has forgiven McVeigh. Wow.

This documentary played in a few theaters, but opened wide when it was shown on PBS' "The American Experience" last night. As it most often the case with programs on "The American Experience", the documentary was well researched, restrained and very sobering. A must-see for anyone interested in the history of this country.

I did live through Oklahoma City and remember it well, and I remember Ruby Ridge and Waco also. Ruby Ridge and Waco had nothing to do with Oklahoma City, and neither did the militia movement or white supremacist organizations. This documentary is little more than the official government story, a story orchestrated at the highest levels of the Justice Department and the White House, placing all of the blame upon a disillusioned ex-soldier and his loser Army buddies and ignoring the obvious presence of more sophisticated conspirators. The film barely mentions the existence of "John Doe #2" who actually DID mastermind the bombing. There was a nationwide manhunt for this person during the week after the bombing until the FBI decided that they had their man and no further suspects were being sought. We are supposed to believe that McVeigh was smart enough to plan this elaborate scheme and yet stupid enough to drive a getaway car without a license plate attached? The film completely ignores the pre-bombing trips to the Philippines that were taken by Terry Nichols and clear evidence that he was meeting there with Ramzi Yousef (the mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993). Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying McVeigh was innocent. He was in this conspiracy up to his eyeballs and he deserved to be convicted, but there were other conspirators higher up the food chain that got away, for purely political reasons. That is the real story of Oklahoma City.