On 10th anniversary of Boston Marathon bombing, brutal and gripping Netflix documentary released
This Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds more on April 15, 2013. It's one of the more cataclysmic events in the history of the city. That moment of terror, and the aftermath, is chronicled with both skill and extreme bluntness in the Netflix documentary "American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing."
The three-part series chronicles the moments the initial bomb exploded and the events that led to the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
The documentary is mainly for people unfamiliar with what happened in those days. In this way, it moves with both blunt force and precision, and the moment-to-moment telling of the events is what makes the documentary special.
It's also at times remarkably difficult to watch. Some of the footage is raw and gruesome.
In the end, what the documentary does best is show respect and appreciation for the victims, law enforcement, journalists and others impacted by the tragedy. It lets them tell their stories.
"I remember waking up on the sidewalk," one witness says in the documentary, "there was a horrendous smell. My ears were ringing so bad that I couldn't really hear. At that point, it was just chaos."
The bombings horrified Boston and the surrounding areas. Adding to the panic, like with all acts of terror, was the unknown. Many asked the obvious question: were more attacks coming?
The documentary also examines the Islamophobia that followed. It's among the most powerful parts of the documentary.
There's one distinct misstep that comes out of nowhere. In making their point about the rampant Islamophobia, filmmakers show one of the planes hitting the World Trade Center on 9/11. That was just totally unnecessary. Why? The point about Islamophobia can be made without showing the plane actually hitting the building. Showing that is simply extreme overkill.
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Mostly, though, the documentary is a skilled piece of storytelling, and it's that way from the first few minutes of the opening episode. You hear the explosions and see people flinch and jump, and then run for safety. It captures those horrifying seconds, and the former commissioner of the Boston Police Department, Billy Evans, sums up the bombings and more with a succinct few sentences:
"I was in the Boston police for 38 years," he says. "I learned a lot of lessons. But the most important thing was, if people want to hurt people, they'll find ways to do it."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Boston Marathon bombing relived in 10th anniversary Netflix documentary
