Sierra Pettengill has once again dug deep into history and put together a fascinating feature film that explores the origins of police being used as a military force. Using mainly archival footage shot by the media and U.S. government (like her last film 'The Reagan Show') the documentary examines fictional towns to combat rioters that were created by military officials during the civil unrest of 1960s America. It is just another in the long line of examples of how racist a country we have been. Ignore films like this at your peril. While it is a necessary film, it is sometimes a bit of a slog. Perhaps it's necessary to pound similar ideas that are good for society over and over again into our collective psyches, because whatever we have been doing isn't working quite right. Final Score: 6.8/10
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
The presenting of the old footage into a story I really enjoyed. Just a surreal and absurd look at a nation.
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
I liked that it showed after 56-years (1966–2022) that nothing much has changed in the USA for non-whites. That the subtitles were more lengthy than most films where they are used. I liked how stupid it made the US government response to the problems of the60s look to this viewer who was around in the60s. All said the documentary was quite boring and rather disjointed. This brief glimpse of the nutty 1960s was like the period, nutty.
