Oklahoma City (2017) Online

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

McVeigh was quite eloquent as to why he did this. And the producers made it there mission to submit his personal testimony to confirm a story line, however there is ZERO proof that McVeigh had any motivation for that pathetic cause. I lived through this. I'm from Junction City, KS. which happens to be adjacent to Ft. Riley. I sat in every seat and ordered from the counter that you see in the surveillance footage . The Army sent mixed race couples...black/white/korean/vietnamese = whomever to Ft Riley Kansas because that was the place they could all coexist with the least amount of resistance. Growing up, it was easy to understand how to respect all races. It's inconceivable that anyone that lived in that area during that time could possibly be racist. Do not misinterpret this...I look forward to the day that the last white supremacist dies, however they are wrongfully accused in this documentary. Why is it so hard to believe, as McVeigh has stated, that the American Government is solely to blame. When the American Government disrespects life, in turn, an American citizen will also disrespect life. LEAD BY EXAMPLE. We've been through this in the 1950's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and 2 decades since. McVeigh is not the icon of a terrorist in the US but the refection of a terrorist state. Yeah, that's right, Im talkin about patriotism....the good ole USA.

Anytime you have Abrahamic separatists zealots fighting the government that's been infested with Leftists(Clintons & Branch Davidians going head to head)children will be caught in between & end up losing their lives in most cases.

The children in Waco, nor the ones in Oklahoma City had to die. Thanks to unreasonable adults, both groups of children suffered & lost their lives. I was raised in an Abrahamic cult too, the J.W.'s(AKA Watchtower Bible & Tract Society). They always beat it into our brains as children "that everything the government does is from Satan" & "this World is Satanic too". And then my eldest sister's Leftist friends were always calling government folks "an evil that needs to be reigned in, we need to be more like Cuba & share with one another & less like Capitalist scum".

See neither side is right IMO(both groups are fifth column scums IMO), I'm sure that the J.W.'s would never go all Waco on anyone(they're controlling, but very cowardly), but it did feel like we were in Jonestown being forced to be part of their operation, they're not benign at all!

We were not allowed to have birthdays(I was made to sit in the hallway during birthday parties), holidays, participate in sports, no going to our proms or college either, also if you're in need of a blood transfusion forget about it, it's not allowed!

We also get genitally mutilated as kids(I hated that the most) it's a complete case of evil being inflicted on innocent children. I also got my *** kicked as a kid when when I got caught talking on the phone with a cute girl that was a none J.W., a totally insane group of people IMO & experience.

Now as an adult I want nothing to do with either group, I'm very middle of the road now & don't feel like losing my life over the aspirations of madmen. I only wish that whole situation didn't happen. Too many children get caught in the crossfire. Janet Reno, Bill Clinton & David Koresh were unable to see another's point of view.

That's at the root of most tragedies today, inflexible people that have no place in a modern society. We can make a better future for all of us if we choose rational thought over anti-life dogma!

Relies 100% on biased information from the government. Glosses over and completely omits to tell the viewer the FBI and ATF was found to have acted illegally in both Ruby Ridge and Waco. This documentary uses who FBI and ATF agents that were proven to have lied about the fire in Waco by a federal court in 1999, as sources in interviews, and presents their legally proven false story as truth. This documentary is designed to misinform. It repeatedly shows white supremacist groups for no apparent reason, never drawing any link to the bombing, because there was none. The producers apparent goal in this piece of propaganda was to give unintelligent viewers the false impression that the Oklahoma City bombing, Ruby Ridge and Waco has something to do with racism, and that it is best we never doubt our masters, because only evil racists don't trust the federal government. Barf.

Bias documentary. If you dislike big government or abuse of authority and you like capitalism, you are a white supremacist according to this documentary.

All this movie tries to do is humanize a terrorist.

The documentary is well made and researched. It is effective in what is trying to do. The problems is that this documentary tries to make people understand Timothy McVeigh's point of view. We are exposed to different events that eventually led to the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City and that is what's wrong with this film. It is not acceptable to humanize someone that hurt so many people.

I understand that everyone has reasons to act the way they do and it is very interesting to know them, specially in relation to this event that marked the USA, but doing this is as preposterous as making a documentary of 9/11 and including a mini bio of Osama Bin Laden and events that pushed him to plan it. This documentary would never have been done if a person of color was the perpetrator. The director almost tries to excuse the actions of the terrorist because of their background.