77 Minutes

I was 8 when this happened so I hadn't heard anything about it until now. It's absolutely heartbreaking. Unimaginable suffering in this community.

The questions Charlie Minn asked the police officers were ridiculous. I don't know if Charlie Minn was alive in 1984 when this tragedy occurred but knowledge of mass shootings was minimal. Every police department did not employ officers who had experience responding to them. It's not like it is today. People weren't carrying cell phones. Information was not received in minutes. Of course things could've been done differently, lessons were learned, protocol was changed. But to personally attack individual officers is so naïve and hurtful. No officer arrived on scene and thought "we'll just sit bank and let this play out". He makes it sound like they chose to let people die. These officers did what they knew to do at the time.

It is very well done- except the obvious agenda of shaming the police that put their lives on the line for these people. It's not 20010 when everyone would have cellphones, telling the cops what they would need to help. Their reasons for not storming the building were totally valid for the time. I admire the director for giving the back story of the shooter but not the name. It would have been a much better documentary if the director had remained unbiased and realizes that the only blame lied with the shooter.

Clearly, the documentarian is biased, attempting to incite anger and blame against the police department for their delay in responding to the scene. Poor fact checking as he questions former SWAT commander, Jerry Sanders, for faulty beeper (from 1984!), being at a gathering where "alcohol was being consumed" (false), and not giving sniper "green light". Documentarian degrades the memories of those lost and traumatized by focusing his film on blame while he himself has no tactical training. Such a shame.

Learning from mistakes made in approaching a mass-shooting scene, trying to apprehend the perpetrator(s) is how imrovements are made, how new generations of law rnforcement are trained. In 1984, mass shootings were relatively non-existent. The interviewer seems determined to ignore the conditions and point out hypothetical 'what if' scenarios - who can know those answers, those outcomes?

The appetite for this genre seems indiscriminate to wasting time with meandering, inarticulate personal accounts. I can't think of an excuse for run time 1.5 hrs except laziness or greed. This should be a tight 30 mins.

Heartbreaking story and I can safely say no horror movie in my experience comes close to the real life horror of this story. That being said, I'll agree with 95% of the other reviewers who fairly criticize the slanted view the director of this film takes towards law enforcement. Hope you learn something from the well deserved slamming you're taking here, but I doubt it.