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.
