Oklahoma City: The Boom, the Bust, and the Bomb

Rated: PG / Runtime: 2h 30m

While some generous editing would be valuable, Oklahoma City: The Boom, the Bust, and the Bomb details the progress and tumultuous history of its city with a contagious affection.

Beginning abruptly with a voiceover that leads into the film’s lone hokey reenactment, History Channel production values clash with a film neophyte’s good-natured yet tinny-eared earnestness. While the Oklahoma natives radiate the required earthy charm, those required to, say, recite documentary exposition in a British accent don’t fare as well. After this unnecessary bother is when things start getting interesting.

An in-depth explanation of the oil and gas industry combines with an overview of the city’s early days to set the stage for the birth of Oklahoma City. A veritable who’s who of business-owners, bankers, and lawyers chime in about the old days, laying a small foundation before the chronology unfolds before us.

While detail is always appreciated in a documentary, this film sometimes gets carried away with its own grand vision. Like most films, it could benefit from some tighter editing and structuring. Small sections feel out of place, asides feel unneeded, and many anecdotes ramble on into obscurity. We don’t reach the titular “Boom” until half an hour in, at which point we’re already ready for the “Bust”.

You can tell it’s a first film, but that’s not always a bad thing. While there’s quite a bit of distractingly inappropriate music, there’re also a lot of fun animated infographics. It’s almost part of the charm.

It’s not meant to be definitive or overly-professional. It’s an oral history from a man that loves his city and has an intense fascination with those that fostered its growth. Pleasantly, the movie shines when the focus switches to unexpected targets, as opposed to the similar-storied oilmen rampant in the film. Tales of massive Vietnamese immigration and the female mathematician-turned-mayor provide depth and warmth to a story threatening to turn coldly entrepreneurial.

Those new to the city can allow the rich history to wash over them, filling in cracks in their knowledge and providing backstory to things many residents take for granted, like Bricktown. Those that grew up watching the city morph around them can have their nostalgia augmented by the plethora of insider details lost on transplants like me.

At its worst, The Boom, the Bust, and the Bomb can be a collection of factoids and trivia from the back of a tourism brochure. But at its most interesting, the film focuses on the individual stories driving the city forward through history, reminding us that the sweeping changes of the past have always been catalyzed by the ambitious few.