I watched this over 2 days and both times I had trouble sleeping afterwards thinking about this story and all its ramifications. As many reviewers have said, it is FAR too long, deliberately strung out and padded especially with a specious comparison to Hamlet which allows for numerous clips of the b/w Olivier film version. There is no real relation to Hamlet here even though both stories feature a Son who's Father has died in bizarre circumstances. The essential theme of Hamlet is one of obsession with revenge which leads to madness and slaughter. In Eric Olsen's calm and witty and highly intelligent discussions I did not at any time detect a desire for revenge, only a desperate need to find an unattainable truth.Unlike many others I really loved the dramatised reconstruction - the cast was excellent and the film created a powerful atmosphere of dread and grief. It just seemed wasted as the viewer is constantly jolted out of the reconstruction and back to the documentary. Equally, the documentary, when it plays it straight and allows Eric to speak or shows archive film of the hearings, is also really poweful and it is annoying to be jolted out of that and back to the same dramatised scenes over and over. By the way, thanks to the reviewer who mentioned Eric's Son, Stephan Olson. I think the ommission of any mention of him is quite underhand. The film strongly suggests that Eric has not had any successful relationships with women because of his obsession and that his personal life has been pretty empty but clearly he was with someone long enough for her to have a child with him and for that child to be a part of his family.

First the director, of whom I am a fan, is to be congratulated for bringing this important story to the screen, a sad and terrifying chapter in our history that is larger than the Frank Olson story itself and even the MK Ultra program. That said, he seems to have been constrained by production values demanded by post-Breaking Bad audiences: technical and artistic overkill, relentless musical tension, and genre-bending, when the story itself is not only mind-boggling but well-documented and essential history that is little known or understood. The length (as has been noted) is far more than necessary to tell this story. A two hour movie or a two part series would have been a more effective use of the raw material. I am however pleased to see the Frank Olson story presented with great respect, although the documentary parts were, to me, far the most compelling than the drawn out contemplative sequences. (I loved seeing footage of the confessions of US military personnel, captured in Korea during the war, to having dropped bio-warfare bombs on North Korea counterposed to their recanting the same confessions when back in the US, suggesting that the brainwashing may not explain these confessions.) I do wonder if Netflix pressured the producers to come up with a six part series for their own reasons. The full history of US intelligence black operations since World War 2 could probably fill many decades of screen time, should our media choose to bring such history to the light of day. I would love to think that this is only the beginning of such an essential exploration.

I can't recommend this film highly enough. It fully engrossed me. The hybrid of drama and documentary served the story in a organic and mind blowing way. The documentary story of a man digging for the truth about his father and the effect that that search for truth has had on his life while the dramatization of his fathers story unfolds was powerful and painfully thought provoking. The cinematography and the production design were breath taking! Peter Sarsgaard's performance was award worthy -- his performance broke my heart. Man. Errol Morris has delivered a film like nothing I have seen before. And his unique way of telling this story does not serve him as a director but rather the story -- the complexity of shots and hybrid story telling is organic and sincere.

I made it through the first episode on my second try but gave up after the second episode was even more boring. I'm sure there's a good story in this somewhere but the director and actors didn't tell it in this vehicle. In my books it ranks right up there with The English Patient, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and Mr. Robot as the alltime boring put-me-to-sleep shows.