Search - NOVA: The Bombing of America on DVD

Engrossing subject matter but not enough is offered

Kyle Tolle | Phoenix, Arizona USA | 08/08/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"With a duration of just about one hour, NOVA made an average attempt to look at a bombing epidemic in America. There is just too much material to hold a documentary like this to such a narrow timeframe. The individual segments on more famous incidents such as the Oklahoma City bombing, the World Trade Center, the Unabomber, Abortion Clinics in the 80's, and a few others are very encapsulated and don't provide enough detail or footage.

The most interesting aspects of this program, in my opinion, are the specifics of how law enforcement agencies (mainly ATF & FBI) along with forensic scientists and chemists investigate crime scenes and attempt to solve cases. The largest amount of time is spent on this portion of the show. Examined, among other things, are evidence collection processes, research techniques, and the art of criminal profiling to identify suspects.

I ended up wanting and expecting a lot more out of this feature as NOVA is usually quite comprehensive in the material that they produce. I'm not sure why they chose to severely limit what could have been such an intriguing presentation but maybe they'll offer something more in-depth in the future. All in all, this isn't a complete failure in itself but it is somewhat disappointing.
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Bombers and the Agencies That Catch Them

Jeffery Mingo | Homewood, IL USA | 05/19/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This work discusses tragic bombing cases and what forensic scientists have done to solve them. Viewers that like "The New Detectives" and "Forensic Files" will also like this. I worried that this disc may teach bombers, rather than prevent them from doing crimes. However, at one point, in the disc, they did say, "We can't say much on a certain bomb detecting technique because we don't want bombers to know about it."

Like the shows I mentioned above, this work only discusses cases that were solved. Something tells me that plenty bombing incidents remain unsolved. This work was made in the mid-1990s, so Columbine and the destruction of the WTC don't come up. Global terrorism is not a topic here either. The work explores the psychological profiles of adult bombers, but it says nothing on that of teens. This is odd in that the work said many bombers are teens who gain instructions from the internet.

Instead of following a chronological pattern, the work introduces the first major bombing case, a series of events that took place in the 1940s, later in time. I think this was done because the footage was not in color and may have bored modern viewers if it were at the beginning."