An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th

Overall a an okay to good documentary until the last 10 minutes when the filmmakers are trying to make a connection with January 10th but coming to a misguided conclusion.

The similarities aren't that people got radicalized (they weren't on Jan'10 btw) but that both events seemed to be instigated by the FBI. The bomber literally spills the beans to a letter to a mother of a victim that the head of operations was FBI. The documentary glosses over it, the same way that they gloss over Carol Howe becoming an informant for the bureau of tobacco and firearms (ATF). The same organization that perpetrated Waco and radicalized those guys in the first place. How can this documentary be so blind?

Why I still give this some stars is that some of the interviews with the victims are very eye-opening and encouraging. Especially the part where the victims try to investigate on their own, again, the documentary never bothers to follow this thread but instead makes a huge leap to January 10. An event that is quite recent and still needs some proper evaluation and investigation by historians as well as journalists to see the full picture. But there are definitely similarities about which "instigators" went to jail and which didn't (hint: the ones working for the Bureau didn't even get charged). Pretty disappointing that the filmmakers didn't go where the story led them to but instead had their own prepared destination in mind.

4 out of 10.

This documentary was okay. It had good subject matter, but delved frequently into people's perceptions of events rather than evidence itself. The story is told through a politically left lens, which isn't as bad as other documentaries, but it just gets old throughout the film. This is a documentary solely based upon secondary and tertiary information. How can the audience trust the validity of the information when so little of the presented information came from the bomber(s) him/themselves?

If you want more facts about the OKC federal building bombing, go elsewhere. This documentary was honestly a long collection of people's opinions on the event and people involved with a few facts sprinkled in here and there.

I'm not entirely sure I consider this a very well made documentary, as it's not like it's reinventing the wheel in any way or wowing in any certain aspects, but the story that it is telling and the way it is telling it is superbly interesting and well told, making for one extremely engaging and through provoking documentary that is both educational and enlightening in many ways. I love being able to watch something to learn about things that have happened in the past, especially when they're horrific such as this case, as I like to believe that we as people can view these experiences and be able to grow and learn from these things to avoid doing them again in the future. This is a very good case of this happens for me, as very little about this case had I known before I sat down to watch this.

However; I had known bits and pieces that are both spoken about, and directly correlated to the events that took place on that fateful day. Those events being the siege on waco and the incident at ruby ridge. As I am not exactly someone that delves into American history all that much outside of what I get from being in school, I hadn't know about these things until fairly recently when I watched over a few hours worth of YouTube videos about them, said YouTube videos being from one of my all time favorite YouTubers Wendigoon. I do think that having this knowledge beforehand definitely helped to establish a basis here and further understand the thought process of what was going on here.

Even though that might be the case, I still find it incredibly disturbing and honestly haunting em the events that are talked about in this documentary. We as a society have this strange knack for forgetting things if we aren't inherently involved with them, and I think this might be a case of that at least for me. Prior to this documentary being released I had never before heard of the bombing that occurred on April 19th 1995, and I find that tragic for a multitude of reasons. One being that I obviously feel this should be remembered and not just by those personally affected but by everyone for both the tragedy that it was but also to realize that this should never happen again. Two being that it's horrific for such a disastrous and devastating thing to happen and to just be forgotten by the mainstream only a couple decades after. This is easily one of the most distressing and gut wrenching things I have ever sat down and heard about, and I cannot imagine the pain these people felt as they realized their loved ones were dead, especially how many of said loved ones were their children, some even toddlers. I have never been so utterly shocked watching a documentary and I truly cannot fathom I had not heard about this sooner, and I am glad at the very least that the main figure behind orchestrating this attack got killed.

As a documentary itself this isn't really anything special as it's kind of hard to do something all that new with a documentary, especially one of such a serious topic - I mean the most inventive doc I have watched as of late was Moonage Daydream and that approach would be horrid for such a real and serious topic. So despite the fact it is a very standard way of shooting one of these, I do think it's insanely effective at what it is trying to accomplish and it gets its message across very well and very simply. Plus I did really enjoy listening to all the different perspectives from all those relatively involved with the incident, from family members affected, to the lawyers and attorneys involved in the trials, and one of the most surprising of all Bill Clinton?! I must say I did not expect to see former president with a lady under the desk Bill Clinton be a major figure here, but honestly I really enjoyed his inclusion and his insight into the way the world was dealing with this. Also there's some really good footage from the events talked about here and it's all super compelling and put together really well.

I'm not going to go around claiming that this Is the best thing ever made or even the best documentary of the year, but for me personally out of what I have seen I really do believe that it is. I feel as if I came away from this far more educated on a real topic that I had known nothing about prior to watching this film, and a new understanding of these tragic events that occurred in American history, and for that I do think that this is more than worth checking out for yourself. Especially if you're someone who's really into either learning about history, or watching documentaries or any other forms of media focusing on things that have happened in the past (usually very bad things). Our government does kind of suck, and that's extremely evident in the way we have handled so many things in the past, but I do hope we can learn from that and somehow come out better, even if I highly doubt we ever will. Overall I enjoyed my time with this documentary as much as one can enjoy this subject, but it's a very informative and compelling story that I am glad these people are getting out more, so for that it's worth your time.

I'll give them credit that they did vaguely mention Ruby Ridge and Waco, but the director falls well short of why the events in OKC transpired.

More childern lost their lives at Waco than at OKC. The director seems to glance over all of the different events that led Timothy McVeigh to commit the atrocities that he did. McVeigh was wrong in what he did, but this film doesn't show how many atrocities that the US government has committed against out own people at the expense of taxpayer dollars.

The film does show some of the Federal agents involved seemingly show some remorse, and that they knew what was happening was wrong, but then glances over it.

In 1995 the most deadly act of domestic terrorism against the US government was committed in was. Committed in Oklahoma City. The key perpetrators were caught and convicted.

This documentary tells you a vague story of the context that the bombings took place and provided some vague information about the main bomber, Timothy McVeigh.

But beyond that there is no new information, and so they rush off into conspiracy theories with vague and easily dismissed claims or random tangents that are meaningless.

This is an okay documentary, but it really doesn't provide any depth or insight into the story of this bombing. So give it a miss really.