HBO's Oklahoma City Bombing Documentary Is Nearly A Complete Dud | REVIEW

HBO's Oklahoma City bombing documentary is a pretty disappointing experience.

HBO recently released "An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th," and the documentary film takes a hard look at the horrific and tragic events surrounding the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.

The bombing carried out by Timothy McVeigh resulted in 168 people dying. McVeigh was executed for the terror attack.

As a history buff, I was pumped when I saw HBO was releasing a documentary about the series. However, you shouldn't waste your time.

HBO misses the mark with Oklahoma City bombing documentary.

It's obvious to anyone paying attention to history that there are plenty of interesting things surrounding McVeigh's attack. Its roots arguably go all the way back to the Ruby Ridge disaster when federal agents killed members of Randy Weaver's family during a siege.

Waco followed Ruby Ridge, and everyone knows about the horrific fate met by many women and children in the Branch Davidians' compound.

That ultimately inspired and motivated McVeigh to carry out the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building nearly 30 years ago.

There are more than enough stories and events to go into, so that making a great documentary should be easy. However, that's not what happened here.

For some reason, the documentary takes subtle and outright direct swipes at white people who love guns. There were many moments watching it when I couldn't help but feel the film was more about attacking anyone who is a conservative Christian and Second Amendment believer. Is it a documentary about Timothy McVeigh or how white gun owners are always on the brink? It's hard to tell at times.

To make the documentary even dumber, there are attempts to tie what Timothy McVeigh did - the worst domestic terror attack in American history - to January 6th. No matter your thoughts on J6, the idea it was comparable to a terrorist attack that left 168 people dead is insane.

HBO's documentary about the Oklahoma City bombing could have been great, but missed the mark. (Photo credit: BOB DAEMMERICH/AFP via Getty Images)

Now, there are some really fascinating parts of "An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th." It's not all bad. The film does a deep dive into McVeigh's time in the military and Elohim City in Oklahoma. The radicalized enclave has long been believed to have ties to the terror attack. What exactly are those ties? That remains unclear and not really ever proven.

In fact, the documentary does point out that outside of a single phone call, there's not much to connect McVeigh to the community, but that's hardly stopped people from speculating about ties between the two over the years.

The documentary also digs into Andreas Strassmeir, another figure many people have questioned when it comes to the events surrounding the April 19th attack. There is no proof the German citizens had any connection, and he left the country not long afterward.

The documentary also shines a light on Carol Howe - the member of a powerful Oklahoma family turned ATF informant and Elohim City resident. I'd never heard about her before, and I found myself going down a very deep rabbit hole.

Yet, all the interesting tidbits aside, the documentary just failed to land. A great documentary should focus on the facts of an event. In this case, there's more than enough to make 20 movies about when it comes to McVeigh and why he did what he did. Instead, "An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th" takes unnecessary shots at groups of people who had nothing at all to do with McVeigh or his radical ideology. Most notably, white Christians who like guns. Since when did they become the enemy?

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed for carrying out the terror attack. (Photo by Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images)

Unless you're super curious about history, you can safely skip "An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th" and find better options on YouTube or just around the web. Let me know if you've seen it at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.