User reviews

As a kid growing up, Kings Island was my life during the summer, almost every summer for years. I always saw school buses and church buses in the parking lot when I visited. I had also heard about MADD as a kid, even asking my mom and grandmother what it's acronym stood for once. I never knew how close Kings Island and MADD were associated until I saw this film and learned about the I-71 Carrollton Bus Crash.

If you learn only one thing from this film, please let it be that drinking and driving don't add up. Never get behind the wheel of an automobile after you're intoxicated. Larry Mahoney's love for the drink cost 27 people their lives on the night of May 14, 1988. I place most of the blame for the tragedy at Mahoney's feet, but some of the fault and blame can also fall on the bus' manufacturer, Ford Motor Company.

Their poor design and greed was a contributing factor in the amount of carnage and death caused that night. And though from a terrible tragedy, came MADD (Mother's Against Drunk Driving) into the national spotlight. Ford recalled and retrofitted similar buses.

Ford Motor Company ended up settling with the victims, which they should have offered to do so anyway. As for Larry Mahoney, the habitual alcoholic and drunk driver only served 10 years in prison for killing 27 people.

My family and I were invited to the screening of this movie this year. I truly do not have words to express how I felt as I sat in the auditorium watching it. Three of my children (ten year old triplets) were actors in the movie, which was one reason we were there that night. My husband and I discussed the story behind the movie with the kids before they filmed their parts and again before we watched the screening. We really didn't think they quite "got it" as they were sure to be a bit starstruck seeing themselves on the big screen. But boy, were we wrong. During the movie, my husband looked down when he heard a sniffle beside him. One of our ten year old boys was crying like a baby as he watched the events unfold on the screen. I was already moved to tears, but for a ten yr old to watch it and "get it"...this movie got its intended point across. We laughed and we cried and we all walked out a little different that night. Kudos to all those who made this movie happen!

Completely unfamiliar with this horrifying event, I began watching it expecting a tragedy documentary which would contain information, details and public reactions to the crash.

However, I was drawn into it by the careful and concise stories related by survivors and family members of victims, which lead the viewer in a gradual and compassionate presentation of the awful event as part of a bigger picture.

The filmmaker is privileged indeed in capturing the accounts from the survivors and family members; articulate, thoughtful and emotionally grounded individuals who frankly unveil their experiences, both awful and heartbreaking. Their individual stories unfold to display not merely the impact and it's aftermath, but it's meaning understood by those individuals as it was taking place and subsequently.

The film is deeply emotional, yet unexpectedly uplifting through the separate stories as they evolved and intertwined. The strength of spirit and character of all the interviewees left me very moved. At the end of the film images and names of all of the victims who died in the crash is revealed - I admit to weeping openly. As they alphabetically go down the list the respect paid throughout the film translated those names and faces into loved and cherished individuals.

As a father, I dread to think what a brutal experience this must have been for the parents of children lost that evening. Seeing the survivors describe their recovery, I can only imagine how painful and overwhelming their path was. This community, these families, these dear friends describe the unrelenting permanence of suffering, yet it's tempered by a desire to find or await meaning, and to discover that joy persists - an experience which was much more palpable than I was expecting. A heartfelt recommendation.

Underneath the deafening, relentless 'music' and sound effects, there are the voices of some people who were survivors of a truly awful bus crash accident, telling us about it. Wish I could have heard all of what they had to say, but the sound balance was atrocious. The 'music' was recorded at double (at least) the volume of the interviews, and was absolutely incessant, which made it really difficult to make out everything they were saying.

Other than that, it was a well put together documentary.

I accidentally started watching this at 2 am. I couldn't stop. I am the same age as a lot of those kids and this moved me. I now need to tell everyone about it. You will cry. You will smile. But above all else this is a hard lesson learned and a story that needs to be told and told and told and told. You want to watch this.

Oh my goodness, I could hardly hear what the story was about so I thankfully read it in subtitles. My goodness, the sound effects were no-joke deafening though!! It literally drowned out anything that people were saying. But like the other reviewer stated, it's a well-put together documentary outside of the sound effects.

My father lives at the exit on 71 South where the sign sits and it is a reminder every visit... amazing job with film

The documentary is fine, but the "background" music made it difficult to listen and focus on the interviews. It was so loud, and I'm hearing impaired. It was distracting for me to hear the droning of the background music than being able to listen in and focus on the interviews. The documentary as whole though kept my interest. I was very surprised to learn that Ford Motor Company didn't want to settle for recalling the buses and adding safety features the one family who lost their daughter requested. I hope the survivors of the tragedy are in a healing place now. Also a testament towards the dangers of drinking and driving.