monte-hayward This needed to be edited down. I value the gradual unveiling of information in the order it was revealed historically. That is how it unfolded for one affected family. There are way too many minutes of re-enactment, especially the rendering of details that the storytellers say are missing. At times, the re-enactment footage is re-used! Additional footage comes from productions of a Shakespeare tragedy. So it feels as if the Shakespeare OR the re-enactments would have been indulgence enough. Why feature both?I was curious. This answered some questions. Wish it had done so more quickly.

suzpos 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.

reallaplaine Wormwood is one of those docu-films which could easily go by the boards and not get a lot of notice, and yet, it is highly relevant. Typically, for decades, Hollywood has depicted the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency, as a dirty black-ops hand of the US government. The agency that lives by the mantra "anything goes" in the name of national security. Wormwood takes us back to 1953 when a scientist, Frank Olson, working on a top secret chemical warfare program, under the auspices of the CIA, suddenly dies and his death is tagged a suicide. His son, Eric, goes on to spend decades trying to force the truth into the open and asking for accountability from the government who is supposed to oversee this agency. This is a true story, the details and re-enactments are quite brilliantly done. The duplicity of the CIA is well-revealed. It's a compelling rendering about one man who goes up against the might of the US government in a relentless search for the truth, and of course, what he discovers in the end is sadly shocking. If you want a dose of reality, watch the film - it will make you question things.

barella-lee I must have been living under a rock all my life! Maybe it's that I'm not a conspiracy theorist... I've heard of the LSD experiments sure, but knowones 'story' ever compelled me to slide down that rabbit hole. This was done well. This isn't a series, it's a true story told with all the teeny tiny dirty details. Very compelling... watched this and read more all in one night, gripping story. Errol Morris did an excellent job!