Summary
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An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th
dispels the lone wolf narrative of McVeigh’s crimes, connecting them to larger white supremacist movements in America. - Starting with victims like Kathy Sanders, the film portrays the horrific impact of the Oklahoma City bombing, emphasizing the need for understanding.
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An American Bombing
showcases the power of forgiveness in the face of hate, providing a path forward from the darkness of domestic terrorism.
29 years ago, the United States was forever changed by an unconscionable act of homegrown domestic terrorism when Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. The act — which is still the most lethal act of domestic terrorism committed within the US — was born from a list of grievances both real and imagined that McVeigh and many like him had stewed on for years. Given the attack’s horrific outcome, the story of the Oklahoma City bombing has been pored over by victims, journalists, government officials, and scholars alike, most recently in the HBO film An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th.
From Blowback Productions duo Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson and produced by Katie Couric, An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th is the latest attempt to unpack McVeigh’s crimes. Through archival footage of the event and those leading up to it, as well as expert testimony from journalists, historians, and victims, the HBO documentary (streaming on Max) parses through the horrific details of the Oklahoma City bombing and its origins in the larger white power movement in America following the war in Vietnam. The documentary expertly explains not only what happened that day, but how we got there, and how close are we to getting there again, or have we already?
An American Bombing Puts Victims First
An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th
4.5/5
Release Date April 16, 2024
Director Marc Levin
Cast Bill Clinton , Mike Boettcher , Kathleen Belew , Jeffrey Toobin
Runtime 77 Minutes
Studio Blowback Productions, HBO Documentary Films
Distributor(s) HBO Max
Pros
- A benchmark study of Timothy McVeigh and white nationalists.
- The film lets victims tell their story but is also meticulously detailed and informative.
- The historical scope and message of forgiveness are powerful.
Cons
- The film should’ve explored the role of the media in extremism.
An American Bombing opens on the morning of April 19, 1995, mere moments before McVeigh’s truck bomb exploded. We start not at the federal building, but instead with grandmother Kathy Sanders as she remembers where she was in the hours leading up to the bombing: getting her young grandsons, Colton and Chase, ready for daycare. As Sanders’ narration plays over home video footage of the two boys, the sense of pure dread is palpable. It’s obvious what comes next, and yet, the emotional impact of their loss is no less gut-wrenching.
There’s an explosive cut to the chaos of that morning, to the moments just after the bomb discharged, when Oklahoma City momentarily became something out of an active war zone. As journalist Mike Boettcher recalls thinking that day, “This can’t happen here.” But it did. 168 people died that day, including 19 children. It’s utterly horrifying to watch, but revisiting this footage of death and destruction, of broken bodies and shattered hearts, must be done if the lessons An American Bombing hopes to convey are to be truly learned.
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Many viewers may never have seen this footage, and starting with it cements the absolute terror that McVeigh and others were able to inflict upon innocent civilians in their quest for some skewed sense of justice. Starting with the horror, and with the victims who remember their loss as if it just happened, makes it clear that none of what follows is meant to diminish what McVeigh did, but to explain it within a larger context of homegrown hate.
Through the Storm of White Supremacy
In the years following McVeigh’s crime, we collectively allowed the terrorist’s narrative to become reality: except for coconspirators Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier, McVeigh was a lone wolf. This, though, is hardly the case, a false narrative that An American Bombing aims to correct. Because while the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out by just these men, it existed within the larger context of white supremacist movements in America.
The documentary thus follows the history of these movements, from the First Wave in 1983 following the return of Vietnam veterans and the Farm Crisis of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Tracing the grievances of those who had been misled and seemingly left behind by their government, it’s clear how easily white power “patriots” stepped in and spread their hateful worldview within this broken and willing group. Most notorious among these white supremacists was Louis Beam, Jr., the first major proponent of leaderless resistance within the white power movement.
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An American Bombing Dismantles the Lone Wolf Narrative
Following the Fort Smith sedition trial in 1988, An American Bombing moves next to the Second Wave in 1990. The lasting effects of the Farm Crisis and the decline of American industry were felt deeply among many, including a young Timothy McVeigh.
The government didn’t just seemingly fail in these areas, though; the swirling miasma of Reagan’s War on Drugs fueled a militarization of the federal government that ended in tragedy. The disastrous responses from the FBI and ATF at both Ruby Ridge in 1992 and Waco in 1993 were perfect fodder for white supremacist groups eager to push the narrative that the government was out of control and that “patriots” were the ones who could put an end to their tyrannical reign.
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An American Bombing excellently traces the connections between McVeigh and the white supremacist groups he was associated with, effectively exploring his journey through the lens of the ideological movements that bore him. Rather than the lone wolf narrative that McVeigh eagerly perpetuated despite the advice of his legal counsel, the Oklahoma City bomber was inspired by his ideological predecessors and arguably guided by their invisible hands. The documentary also explores the question of the government’s foreknowledge of the attack, and openly wonders what might have been done differently on that front.
Did Timothy McVeigh Win?
HBO
An American Bombing ends with the Third Wave of American white supremacist movements, centered specifically around the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection. The grievances of the past have transformed, but make no mistake: the movements that made up the bulk of the rioters on January 6th come from the same ideological vein as McVeigh.
In reorienting the narrative of the Oklahoma City bombing toward McVeigh’s white supremacist progenitors, An American Bombing pulls viewers away from the lone wolf narrative in a way that’s important for understanding modern attacks of leaderless resistance. But is this enough? In a contentious election year when the political talking points echo those from these movements, where disinformation and misinformation spread like wildfire, is this kind of thing enough to move the needle with the people who need to hear it most?
There’s another element that perhaps could and should have been discussed: the role of the media in these cases. Whether it’s extreme media that radicalizes audiences or mainstream sources hyper-focused on getting in front of a sensational story, there’s a question of what role these continue to play in our ideological landscape that An American Bombing doesn’t adequately address.
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The Victims Offer a Path Toward Redemption
HBO
An American Bombing is framed by the victims, specifically by Kathy Sanders and her family. As a staunch advocate for victims’ rights and a believer that McVeigh’s terrorism wasn’t born in a vacuum, Sanders has fought tirelessly to find the truth behind what exactly happened that day. It is from her that An American Bombing reveals perhaps its most important message: the power of forgiveness.
While the documentary doesn’t offer a path forward from the hate that continues to infect our political discourse, nor does it suggest that forgiveness is our only tool against that hate, An American Bombing does offer a clearer picture of where that hate comes from. And maybe that knowledge, combined with forgiveness, in all of our hands, can be enough in the fight for a better future. From HBO Documentary Films,An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th premiered April 19th, and is streaming on Max through the link below.
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