Oklahoma City (2017) Reviews

• A must-see documentary about the background of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing

  paul-allaer2017-02-08

  "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.

• A Broad Scope

  gavin69422017-05-10

  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.

• White Bred Terrorism

  BlueFairyBlog2017-04-26

  I don't remember Oklahoma City, or Waco, or Ruby Ridge. These events, if they were in my young subconscious mind at all, were crowded out by 9/11, which happened when I was only ten years old. For a generation that has been inundated with images of terrorism, violence, and war, it's difficult to grasp just how explosive and unjust this event was, and how it shocked the nation to learn that born and bred Americans could be just as responsible for the destruction of the country's goodwill than foreign invaders. This film was directed by Emmy winning PBS documentarian Barak Goodman (Scottsboro: An American Tragedy). He begins the film's narrative at Oklahoma City, but then flashes back to the inception of the Aryan Nation in the mid-to-late eighties, and the ensuing terrorist institutions that created a platform for an army vet named Timothy McVeigh. Tracing this critical history of white held terrorism within the United States, we see the quick succession of violent white men who have taken arms against their government, and the almost unending paranoia that it created. People like David Koresh and Randy Weaver were the inspiration for an angry, xenophobic young man without many options and a plethora of military knowledge at his disposal. McVeigh chose the building because he wanted retribution for those who stood against the government and died because of it. In our current political climate terrorism is almost a give-in, an accepted cross to bear in our everyday lives. McVeigh was the first major figure in a long line of American born white men who have taken arms against their own citizenry (Eric Robert Rudolph, Dylann Roof, Wade Michael Page, and thirty-six others since Oklahoma City). This documentary not only sheds light on the horrific act of three disillusioned youths, but the greater trend of discontented, hate- filled teens who later become violent terrorists. These events are more common than ever, and it's not a problem that goes away with prayers and acceptance. It stops because we don't let it happen again. We protect our fellow man, our children, and those who don't have a voice. This film is illuminating in all the right ways, and emotionally devastating in a million others.

• Official government version

  danmcn61-12017-04-28

  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.

• Deceptive and ham-fisted at best...

  gthornhill2017-12-29

  I've never reviewed a film on IMDB before, but on this occasion I felt it necessary to air my thoughts in the public domain, specifically with the intention of warning others who may view this documentary, as I did, expecting an independent and objective analysis of the Oklahoma city bombing. Despite this being a professionally produced documentary, it goes without saying that my expectations were (sadly) not met. Throughout my viewing, I developed a growing objection towards the producers and several of the "experts" who were interviewed - the reasons are complicated, but allow me to explain. To begin with, the documentary claims to gives a basic understanding of the events of Waco and Ruby Ridge as the forerunners to, and likely causation of, the Olkahoma city bombing - they are described as "the spark" and "the flame" respectively. The first part begins with eye-witness accounts but then quickly moves onto supposed "experts" presenting their opinions, and it's hard to tell which is which. Ultimately, the opinions of the latter (covered later in this review) have no basis in either fact or evidence. The whole film is oddly interspersed with footage of "Aryan Nations" gatherings, but any alleged connections are not overtly made or explained, it is simply left to the viewer to assume, wrongly, that both Waco and the Oklahoma bombing were evidentially connected to the extremist right-wing movement... the reasons why become clear soon enough. It is exactly this sort of deceptive presentation that lets the documentary down, but I suspect it was produced and cleared by PBS with the full knowledge that it would intentionally taint the historic facts of the incidents it chooses to revisit. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes apparent that the film-makers had an ulterior motive in mind when assigning the ultimate blame for McVeigh's actions, and this is quite clear when a) sections of the film are analysed in comparative detail, and b) research is conducted on the "experts" the producers chose to interview. The result is a tainted production which veers subtly but repeatedly towards blaming the bombing on both historic and current white separatist movements in the United States. Despite the fact that, by the documentary's own admission, there are NO identifiable links between Timothy McVeigh and any white supremacy movement, this documentary has become yet another modern-day catalyst to fuel the already growing racial discontent in the United States and across the world. One specific example of viewer deception is the way similar aspects of the three incidents were covered. Waco, Ruby Ridge and Oklahoma all involved the deaths of children. However, the deaths of the children at both Waco and Ruby Ridge, ultimately as a result of the incredibly aggressive and shameful actions of the ATF and FBI, were hurriedly brushed over without a second thought. Yet the deaths of the children in the Oklahoma bombing covered a vast proportion of the documentary. Viewers were treated to interviews with sobbing parents, photographs of battered and bloodied bodies, explicit descriptions of how deceased children were laid side-by-side and wrapped in white sheets, footage of hospitalised children, photographs of a brain-damaged boy - I could go on. Timothy McVeigh was made out to be the ultimate evil who directly caused such unnecessary suffering to these victims, however this is despite the documentary, in earlier footage, acknowledging that despite all of McVeigh's meticulous planning, there was no indication that he had any knowledge that the Alfred P. Murrah building contained a daycare centre. Yet in comparison, the FBI's decision to use military tanks to pump CS gas, an incredibly flammable and carcinogenic substance used as a military incapacitant, into the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, KNOWING that the premises contained at least 25 children, wasn't questioned or covered in any great detail. In a similar vein, the shooting of Randy Weaver's son by ATF agents was simply brushed over with no explanation. The subtle result of this skewed comparison is that the US government should not be questioned or blamed for any part in the deaths or suffering of any children connected to these incidents, and any blame should lie solely with the "extremist" right-wing movement, a connection which, as previously mentioned, is repeatedly suggested but not proven to any credible degree. In other segments, the documentary deceives by omission. Viewers are repeatedly forced to make a connection between legal gun ownership and domestic/nationalist extremism. People who enjoy the sport and art of shooting are portrayed as dangerous, borderline predators. Army veterans who own guns are inexplicably linked to white supremacy. The producers repeatedly suggest the American militia movement is borne from white supremacy, despite including footage showing white and black militia members from the same movement. Anti-government and anti-establishment views are cemented firmly as being "white supremacist" in origin, with no mentions made of the corresponding existence of armed black militia groups such as the Black Panthers. The real bone of contention, and sudden understanding of the reasons behind the emphasis on "white supremacist groups", came when I paused the documentary to research the "experts", after I became suspicious about their backgrounds and motives. It transpires that several of them are actually Jewish activists and members of the Southern Poverty Law Center - it is widely known that many affiliated with the SPLC have made careers out of their damning analysis of the right-wing, and are self-proclaimed experts in this field. However, their backgrounds (and thus their prejudices) are carefully concealed as they are simply introduced under titles such as "journalist" and "writer". For example, Mark Potok is a member of the SPLC, Leonard Ziskind is a community relations advisor and human rights activist, and Daniel Levitas is a member of the "Centre for Democratic Renewal". Each of these experts from the limited (and hardly diverse, either on the basis of gender or ethnicity) selection presents their opinions as fact, and unsurprisingly, their opinions are that blame for civil unrest, racial divide, government opposition and ultimately, domestic terrorism and the murder of children, is the sole fault of those white Christians who hold separatist beliefs. All the focus of the documentary and on McVeigh's motivations is on this single angle, with no attention paid to the impact of his service in the US Army (despite the gratuitous images of corpse-strewn battlefields) and the potential psychological consequences, or of his own isolation and frustration in post-military life. It would hardly have been difficult to ask an expert to comment on this aspect of McVeigh's actions, but the producers apparently did not see fit to do so, which in context seems to be a deceptive and ham-fisted approach to this complex issue by the film-makers themselves. Ultimately, being fair and objective, this is an interesting documentary that contains some unique footage, however it should be viewed with caution... it seems to have been produced with the intention to further racial divide. To prove this, the very final part of the film has one of the Jewish experts asserting his "firm belief" that the entire Oklahoma bombing was the fault of the white separatist movement, despite NO such evidence being presented at McVeigh's trial! To finish it off, the credits begin with a single fact presented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, that there are "currently over 500 white supremacist groups active in the United States". This is verging dangerously and needlessly close to inciting hatred; it does a dis-service to the actual victims in all three incidents, and cheapens the tragedy by ultimately turning it into a propaganda effort. Divide and conquer, anyone?