The story of the Boston Marathon bombing and the aftermath to find the people responsible for it.
I remember first seeing the trailer for this film and being unsure whether I would like to sit through it or not, considering this happened in 2013 it still feels very close and a tough thing to really comprehend and think about. The Boston Marathon is one of the most famous and toughest to get a place in. For two men to then decide to make a statement with home-made bombs on the finish line was really so tragic.
The film takes the approach of building up to the bombings by showing us exactly what was happening with different characters. We got to know them a little bit and the stories behind how and why they ended up at the finish line, at well the wrong time really. I thought this was a rather important aspect to make you want to watch the film. As we may remember certain things from the news when it happened, but creating that atmosphere was very important.
The build up was also important to show that people really had no idea what was going to happen next. The film then takes on a different approach to the man hunt that was to follow searching for the Tsarnaev brothers, using as many mobile phone videos and security cameras as possible to gain as much information as possible. Which I thought was a pretty interesting idea. This is where some of it becomes even closer than actually making this awful thing into a film already. The fact that some of the footage used is real footage, and then some of it you aren’t really sure anymore.
I am not saying it is a bad film as it is not at all, we get some very impressive performances from Wahlberg, Goodman, Bacon and Simmons. It is just the subject matter of the film that makes it hard to watch at times as it shows the graphic nature of the injuries suffered and what the people had to go through. Being separated from loved ones and to different hospitals in some cases.
Something it did show though was how much people would show love in such an awful situation, battling to help one another and making sure the people who were hurt the most were safe.
This then changed to the chase which really was incredible that the brothers managed to get away with so much for well so long really. Then stealing a car was always going to be the downfall when the police had something to try to locate. It must have been horrendous for the city to be on a total lock down and people having no idea if more bombs were planted anywhere else.
Another interesting insight was to how the Boston Police and FBI had to try to handle it all very carefully. Reluctance to release the images and constantly clashing with each other, until they realize that they can actually help each other instead. But does it offer possibly too much information into the chase to terrorists and offer them advice on what not to do? I guess it does make you think about that as well.
The ending with the real people involved was extremely emotional!
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