'American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing' debuts on Netflix

It was the darkest day in the city's illustrious history, coinciding with one of its most iconic institutions: The Boston Marathon. And although it would result in the deaths of four innocents, the murderous intent of brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev never weakened the resolve of a community that refused to be brought to its knees by a pair of cowardly losers who, as President Barack Obama defiantly proclaimed, “picked on the wrong city.”

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Local law enforcement, along with a huge assist from the FBI, brought the killers to justice in 101 hours. How they did it is the subject of “American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing.”

Now streaming on Netflix, the three-part documentary is far from comprehensive, but it concisely recaptures the anger and anxiety gripping greater Boston for five days in April 2013.

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The uncertainty looming over Floyd Russ’ documentary is whether we're willing to recall an event we’d just as soon forget. That was certainly my attitude going in. But by the end of the largely riveting three hours, I found it worthwhile in its reverence toward the detectives, first responders and average citizens who demonstrated that it takes a village to catch a pair of killers. That’s particularly true of tech entrepreneur Danny Meng, whose bravery when confronted by the heavily armed Tsarneavs was integral to their capture.

Sure, mistakes were made along the way, some of them nearly fatal. But Russ doesn’t gloss over them, particularly the Wild West-style shootout in the streets of Watertown when the cops had the fleeing brothers cornered. We see the bullet-pocked exteriors of homes along Laurel Street, where a round whistled inches above the head of a sleeping baby.

Russ, venturing far beyond his usual milieu of Netflix sports docs like “Zion” and “Malice at the Palace,” wisely stands back and allows those involved to tell their often compelling stories. They include Boston police brass such as Billy Evans and Ed Davis, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, EMT Janell Jimenez and Rick DesLauriers, the FBI’s special agent in charge.

Their accounts are fascinating. They place you inside their heads as life-and-death decisions are made, often on the spot, and sometimes in error − for instance, when to release surveillance-camera photos of the suspects, originally identified as “White Hat” and “Black Hat.” Davis insisted on their immediate release in the hope that a credible tipster might provide names. But DesLauriers and Ortiz thought that going public might lead to more death and destruction once the killers knew the police were closing in.

Both arguments had merit, but hindsight proved Davis, who prevailed due to a suspicious news leak, was wrong. And he freely admits it. You feel compassion for Davis when he’s asked if releasing the photos prematurely directly led to the death of MIT police officer Sean Collier at the hands of the suddenly desperate fugitives.

Conspicuously absent are testimonies from the loved ones of the deceased or from almost all of the nearly 200 people injured, many of them permanently maimed.

We do meet Karen McWatters, a spectator standing near the finish line in front of the Forum restaurant on Boylston Street, ground zero for the first of the two pressure cooker bomb attacks. She not only lost a leg but also her best friend, Krystle Campbell, who died along with fellow onlookers Lingzi Lu, a Boston University grad student from China, and Martin Richard, the youngest casualty at age 8.

McWatters and her then-fiancé and now husband, Kevin McWatters, don’t expand much beyond what we’ve heard before. Same with Cambridge-based Imam Ismail Fenni and Youssef Eddafali, acquaintances of surviving brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is awaiting execution in a federal prison. The two speak of the rise in Islamophobia after the murders, but their statements merely echo the usual sentiments of those victimized by the racist attitudes of reactionary nonbelievers.

The most stirring moment arrives via footage of Obama’s visit to the city after the bombing.

“They picked the wrong city; not here in Boston,” the president declared to a standing ovation at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. "We may be momentarily knocked off our feet, but we'll pick ourselves up. We'll keep going … (and) this time next year, the world will return to this great American city to run harder than ever and to cheer even louder. … Bet on it.”

Later that year, the Red Sox helped console a grieving city by winning the 2013 World Series.

Boston strong, indeed.

'American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing'

Rated: TV-14

Writer-director: Floyd Russ

Where: Netflix

Grade: B

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: 'American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing' debuts on Netflix