The Anthrax Attacks

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source: The Anthrax Attacks

I was looking forward to this, as 9 times out of 10 I thoroughly enjoy Netflix documentaries/series. The subject matter is one I find interesting, however this was so poorly, and seemingly cheaply, executed I thought I had travelled back in time to my childhood memories of daytime TV movies of the 1980's. 4 stars is me being generous, as I did watch the whole thing, but you shouldn't finish watching something with a feeling of accomplishment! That's never a good sign! Having re-enactments as part of a documentary can work well. Here it definitely does not. The acting (particularly from the nation protagonist) is so wooden it felt like I were watching a live action Pinocchio. Seriously, I've seen Thunderbirds who are better actors. I have to say I felt the overall presentation in a way trivialised what was something that should never have that effect in retrospect. It really had a 'poor man's Breaking Bad' vibe to it and needless to say, I couldn't recommend this to anyone even if you are interested in the events. Definitely look elsewhere - here has to be something better than this.

This documentary does a decent job capturing the chaos and uncertainty of the weeks after 9/11 when America was besieged by Anthrax-laced mailings. These mailings resulted in only five deaths, but caused an untold level of fear. The film does a good job overviewing the lengthy and expensive FBI investigation into the case. Having lived through that era as a teenager it was interesting to watch this film as a piece of history now that we are over 20 years removed from the attacks. From the science of the pure anthrax spores to the cryptic notes included with the anthrax to the red herrings and missteps along the way, the film manages to cover an enormous amount of information in less than two hours. The film is a mix of news reel footage, interviews with those involved in the case, and re-enactments of key interactions with the main suspect. Clark Gregg of Marvel fame portrays Dr. Bruce Ivins who after a years long investigation was identified by the FBI as the perpetrator. Gregg gave a good performance. I don't normally like re-enactments in documentaries, but these scenes were written based directly on FBI interview notes of their conversations with Ivins as well as Ivins' own emails and writings. This gave the re-enactments a grounded and real feel. Overall this is an informative and easy to digest documentary. However, even after watching it, the viewer may feel less than convinced that the FBI got there man.