‘Desert One,” a superb documentary by Barbara Kopple, snatches high drama from the jaws of devastating failure. We prefer tales of triumph, breakthroughs, success against steep odds, unless the point is assigning blame, which isn’t Ms. Kopple’s intent. That’s not to paint Ms. Kopple’s film—she won Oscars for “Harlan County U.S.A.” and “American Dream”—as a nuts-and-bolts lesson in military tactics. “Desert One” is full of details and flourishes that you’d expect to find in a fiction film. In a sense “Desert One” amounts to a forensic autopsy of a brave attempt gone dreadfully wrong.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 20, 2020 21:11 UTC