The Anthrax Attacks

Very interesting. As a current USPS letter carrier, I really understood the frustration of the employees interviewed for this documentary. I went through a similar experience at my office during the COVID-19 pandemic. (not AS scary as anthrax, but the bureaucratic foot dragging that left employees unnecessarily exposed) I felt so sad for my brothers and sisters that suffered during this awful time, and I wish they had their actual day in court!

The film did lag for me toward the end, when the FBI zeroed in on the perpetrator. And I was not at all surprised that it ended in controversy, with what appeared to be a bit of a government cover up. The U. S. Government, and the USPS, should be held much more accountable for their roles in this horrible event in our country's history!

No pun intended - this is not about the Anthrax itself, but what or rather how the documentary is done. Mixing documentary and re-enacted events. With Clark Gregg of all people - I reckon on purpose, because he is quite likeable and not as shady (potentially?) as the character he is supposed to portray.

That mixed bags of goods ... well I am not sure it will work for most people watching this. The scenes that are being redone for dramatic effect ... well they don't entirely work. My sense and my understanding of them. Seeing how people have rated, it seems that others do agree with me though.

Interestingly done, but there are way better documentaries out there, you can spend your time with ... just saying.

The Anthrax Attacks: In the Shadow of 9/11 (2022): Documentary on Netflix with dramatised scenes. Shows how a US Postal Sorting Centre wasn't closed down for 10 days despite anthrax spores being present, resulting in deaths and illness but a US senate office building was closed immediately after a suspicious package was delivered (no anthrax was found). People became suspects because they were eccentric, some were hounded, FBI agents running press campaigns against them. Close surveillance resulted in them driving over one scientist's foot. But it's also an interesting tale of investigation and you find out more about anthrax and the attack campaign itself. I'll reveal no more. Written and Directed by Dan Krauss. 8/10.

I really don't like documentaries that are actually just dramatized reenactments of the events, and prefer investigative documentaries that rely solely on actual footage, audio and other media involving the event. This documentary tries to straddle both, but unfortunately tries to derive way too much substance from the re-enactment portion. Most of this has to do with one of the FBI's suspects, and at that point in the film the production really goes off the rails into being primarily an over-acted, dramatized re-enactment. I think they felt this was really necessary to better highlight the reasons why the FBI suspected this person, maybe feeling that simple narration of transcripts might have been too boring. However, as with all re-enactments, you then run into scenes like a deposition hearing between the FBI and the suspect that are so dramatized you don't know what was actually said and what was part of the script the production company provided.

I would have preferred if it had been a purely factual documentary, or at least if Netflix had made it more clear that it was so largely re-enacted so I could avoid it all together.

This documentary gives a decent overview of the case but should be supplemented with further reading if you want the full story. A bright spot was the focus on the postal employees and others effected by the attacks. The dive into reasoning and other important detail was kind of glanced over and condensed to a small footnote at the end. Again supplementing with further reading can flesh out the nitty gritty. Would have liked to see a deeper look into Dr Ivins possible motive that was only mentioned at the end. I would have also liked a closer look at the fbi investigation and a bit more of an explanation as to why the samples were destroyed. I assume it's a classic case of "we got our guy so let's close this book before more questions come up" but we will never know.