This was an astonishing little film. Powerful, deep, profound, gritty, resonant, and sad. Sad because it is a reflection of a broken nation. Sad because it is a reflection of a completely broken criminal justice system. Sad, because it is such an accurate reflection of how tilted our society is, and how much it favors the flavor vanilla. This film also portrays the police as savage, ruthless, heartless, violent, vacuous men, hellbent on teaching the outsiders a lesson. Not far from reality. There is a reason why such a high percent of Blacks, Latinos, and outsiders have so little regard for law enforcement. The film focuses on the preppies vs. the punks. The preppies are shown as empty headed, fairly dumb, hateful, nasty, and possessing barely a redeeming bone in their bodies. The preppies are shown as somewhat sympathetic characters. Decent relationships with their families. Definitely not as dumb as the preppies. A bit aimless, angry at society, and also hateful. But, for good reason. They have been rejected by their community, their schools, their teachers, their policemen, and the rather jaundiced, crooked, silly criminal justice system, that favors vanilla over chocolate, boring over radical, conventional over outside of the box. Every bit of Bomb City is aware of its current resonance, how the ramifications of mistrust and shallow judgments led to a tragedy that no one seemed to learn from. Its point is made through spending time with the abrasive but good-hearted Deneke, and when the audience is allowed to extrapolate the meaning of these small moments themselves the film achieves the profundity it's aiming for. It is obvious that the filmmakers sympathies lie with the victims. But, it is hard to argue with that sympathy. The murderer is a hollow shell. A man without purpose, conviction, humanity, sympathy, sorrow, or purpose. A man who deserved to spend decades in prison, but walked free as a bird, due to his color, his class, his status as an athlete, and a system that rewards that over any sense of decency or morality. As I said before, this film is a testament to how very broken America is. There is no making America great again. That is just not going to happen.

Very well done and thought provoking film that made me realize how far we still have to go as parents, and a society, to teach our children the value of acceptance, both of ourselves and others, and the tragedy of going along with the crowd, regardless of whether it's right or wrong.

High quality Indie movie, great true story, terrific acting and the movie had a point. Watch it!

Great independent flick! Tragic story. Well told

Emotional, intense, True! This movie will give you every feeling, it's a must see.

Spaciously missing elements, but ambitious with decent lighting. It's a story worth telling although some moments feel milked when showing respect. If you enjoy this scene, it's quite nice.

What a perfect movie! Showing what is the real life when you are different and have a voice ... everyone want to shut you. They don't want to ear the truth. Don't talk, don't have an opinion, don't be different and specially follow the ranks.

It is a great independent movie based on a real story. It depicts the last week of Brian Deneke before his murder by a jock and HS football star, the trial of the murder case (and the ugly tactic used by the defendant lawyer to vilify Brian and the Amarillo punk community) and eventually the verdict that was a slap on the wrist.The movie is great because he does not depict Brian as an all-saint angel (he had been arrested for can spraying and attempt to evade to police), but I dare someone that did not do something stupid during their teenage years. It shows the struggle of being a punk, a goth, a metalhead or anything that is considered deviant from the Holy Trinity in a small Texas town (Jesus, Guns and HS Football). The strength of the movie is its relative location accuracy (a good chunk was filmed in Amarillo), the accuracy of the trial (with the use of court transcripts) and the fairness of treatment (the filmmaker did not mention that the HS football jock that escaped jail time and fine later got a taste of his medicine for violating probation).Unlike a fictional movie, this one left me dazzled, shaken and full of sorrow. Brian was my age, was listening something not too far from my musical taste and unfortunately paid the highest price, only to be portrayed as a "filth to the society". RIP Brian :(

Bomb City is powerful, thought provoking, and bone chillingly realistic. You know how it ends from the get go, but that doesn't make it lose any of the feeling or the impending dread. You are dropped into the story and experience their world without the need of an extensive backstory or explanation. In short, you experience, instead of simply being told what it was like to be punk in Amarillo. The realism comes from showing the flaws on both sides, and the motivations and feelings that so often accompany prejudice, impulse, and poor judgment (from which none of us are immune). The cinematography and score add to this sense of realism, impulse, and dread. It is a must see; and once you do, it will stay with you.

I honestly can't recommend this film enough. If you're into dramas and want a visceral experience, support this movie. It derserves your attention. And there's tons of moments that really make your heart race. Especially near the end, which I won't spoil. This is a mature, dark, gritty and great movie. Definitely check it out!

A beautifully made film though some scenes did drag on a little and could have been shortened. My heart goes out to Brian's family. While they struggle to live everyday after the sensless loss of their son, Cody is out there still living his pathetic life. I pray he never finds peace, and has nights of sleeplessness and bad dreams for what he's done. On this occasion, the Amarillo judicial system failed!

Was completely blindsided by how much of an impact this entire film would have on me. Don't sleep on this one.

Great movie, I lived through the event and still didn't know as many details and what this movie lead to.

akhirnya di pelemin juga nih kasus taun 97.. kalo pernah denger museum dinamit pasti tau, sayang doi mati dan kasusnya ydh gtu aja.pembunuhnya bebas, cma gegara laifstyle jd org kek mreka emg pantes die.sampe film bener bene endingg, gua masih antusias banget, edning dengan pernyataan yang bagus banget!

I said before that is difficult not to take real events in considerations when you write a based-of-true-facts movie review, at least for me it is. But in this case I don't want to think about the real drama because it's too complicate to be put in a 95 minutes piece of film. I just want to admire the amazing direction and the great use of lights and photography, because thanks to them you can feel and follow the tension of those moments in a really powerful way. This movie proves that you don't need tons of money to do that. Well done.