All right, I finally finished watching The Path to 9/11 last night. Better late then never, right? (You can actually still watch it online here.}
Overall, I thought it was good, but I'm not sure people who haven't been really locked in to (obsessed by) the details of the September 11 attacks would have followed it as easily as I did. I knew the storyline already and even the names of most of the key people. I also thought there were some scenes where the acting was so stilted that I thought it was almost ridiculous. I don't understand why those scenes weren't cut or reshot.
I can understand why the Clinton folks didn't like it, but they should get over it. Sure if people want to see a criticism of the Clinton Administration in there, they can, but I believe the program was a fairly typical Hollywood good-guys-can't-get-anyone-higher-up-to-listen type offering. Only, in this case the good guys didn't succeed in the end. The good guys were John O'Neill, "Kirk" – an invented/composite CIA character – and, to a lesser extent, Richard Clarke.
I honestly don't think that a Republican administration would have done much differently and I think most viewers would get that impression. The program was less anti-Clinton than anti-government. Too much bureaucracy, too much red tape, too much concern with legalities to deal with this threat was the over-riding theme.
