User Reviews

I watched this trying to understand better the facts of Covid and it unfolding since I only really heard stories from the news. This did an okayish job showing that as it mostly pertains to 3-6 patients examined in the whole film. Oddly they threw in a racial component to the film that seems unrelated and disjointed (they do mention that apparently covid affected minorities more than white people but that's unrelated to the BLM stuff they have later in the film).

Overall I had more empathy for nurses and what they went through so I'd say that's probably the message overall that resonated with me.

Innovative and interesting. This film is prescient for all sorts of reasons, and well worth checking out. I would recommend this for anyone looking for something a little unusual.

I thought Matthew Heineman did justice by being able to film what was going on in the ICUs at the time. The hospital they were at was in Queens and I was in Brooklyn at the time. It's accurate. I was surprised the film crew was able to capture more of the intimate moments that the public doesn't get to see. It's a necessary watch, despite the flashbacks. Part of me thinks if they were releasing footage like this early on in the pandemic, it would've changed a lot of public opinion. The other part says some people still would've turned a blind eye. Also, beware of the other reviews calling this fake. Those Herman Cain award nominees wouldn't even know...

This is a great documentary that shows the pandemic in a different perspective. Thanks to all the nurses for their hard work during this hard time! This touches on so many different issues, i feel like not one is more important then the other. As humans, we should come together.

We as a society failed here massively. This all could have been avoided if we would have gone into a strict globally coordinated lock-down as soon as the first cases started showing up. I am glad that I was able to convince my parents to isolate, move to our remote condo, and stay away from everybody until they finally got vaccinated.

That being said, those who down-vote this documentary and call it fake, are exactly the same people who have been downplaying the pandemic and making it much worse for everybody else. They should be ashamed of themselves instead of continuing with their bull.

Lastly I would like to express my condolences to everybody who lost a loved one to this disease, and thank everybody who was involved into saving people's lives despite all the struggle and disbelief about how some patients got sick.

It's hard to watsch because it's a documentary about just the first wave. We all had multiple of those. And many less fortunate countries got much worse outcomes. And it's still not over as of now.

Race should have been left off, and George Floyd had nothing to do with the Covid outbreak. So why add him to it. He was NOT a hero, but a criminal. No one was a hero in that situation. Black Lives Matter has been proven to be a detrimental organization. The documentary would have been better if these items were left out.

Even though I've read the stories of healthcare workers and the horrors they've endured during the pandemic, it's difficult to truly understand the reality of the past two years. This documentary helped me gain more understanding of what has been happening in our hospitals, which is especially important right now - when everyone is feeling worn out and tired of this pandemic. It was difficult to watch the patients, their families, nurses, and doctors suffer physically and emotionally, but the documentary left me feeling hopeful and determined to help where I can.

Notice the people that died and what their conditions were BEFORE they died. Deadly preexisting conditions.

The key to all of this. Mechanical ventilators. Very few survived and many didn't need to be on them. Which is the reason why many doctors started speaking out against them in April/May 2020. Some nurses went even further and accused hospitals of malpractice.

They ALL had severe deadly preexisting conditions, like diabetes, but ultimately Covid was listed as the cause of death.

You heard them in the beginning how there was no coherent pattern to any of this.

I don't understand the underlying racial component that was injected into this. It was totally unnecessary. When the doctor said "my people had to suffer."

It was a VERY revealing documentary, but not for the reasons most people would think. To me it confirmed what I have suspected all along, but if I say it, this review will be deleted.

I agree with some others that they only focussed on two people, instead of the overall events, which would have been more helpful to get some more actual data about how many people were put on ventilators, what were their symptoms, their preexisting conditions etc.

It was essentially an emotional appeal to the viewer serving as a reenforcement tool for the narrative that has been promoted by the media and government. Just showing a bunch of dying and/or dead people really isn't that informative, but rather used to scare the viewer.

In the end, I really have no idea what the point of this documentary was. Nor did I understand why George Floyd's death and the protests had anything to do with Covid despite them trying to make a connection. I felt it was way too manipulative and the Hans Zimmer Interstellar copycat music didn't help. They showed people dying which is obviously always sad, but the overall point was what? It wasn't provocative or very enlightening as a film because as I stated above not much actual useful information was provided.

Watch it and make up your own mind about what really happened. Interesting, but for VERY different reasons other people think.

I watched the film via streaming on the Eventive app on Apple TV. The first moments of the documentary was hard to watch. Several times I considered turning the TV off and not watching it. You, the viewer, are basically like the fly on the wall where interns and nurses are constantly called to rooms in ICU to assist dying patients trying by a long shot to rescue them from sure death either through CPR or electro heart shocks before deciding their pulses are not coming back and they are declared dead. Many times the interns and nurses lose it and get very emotional when they are unable to save lives. You actually see one body getting zipped in a body bag, stored in a refrigerated truck and buried in a mass grave. Later on, the movie focuses on three specific people. An intern and two severely ill Covid-19 patients in ICU on ventilators. One is a school security officer for the NYPD, the other one of the hospital's nurses who is pregnant who caught covid from her patients. While in ICU, she gave birth by C-section. The film also focuses on both their families and how they are coping. Throughout the film it is hard to predict if either of them would survive. I predict this film will be a strong candidate for an Oscar for Best Documentary.

I think this documentary is extremely accurate in telling this story that needs to be told from the lens of healthcare providers. It literally was like this. The emotions, the dialogue, the sentiments, the difficult conversations, the intersection with racial injustice and unrest. It is all accurate, and seeing this made me feel heard. It validated that many of the things// conversations I saw and experiences I/ my colleagues had were in fact happening everywhere.

It may not be an easy watch, but this is an essential watch! This is partly why: We cannot let the hundreds of thousands of people that have died, to die in vain. We must not forget. We must do all that we can do and be diligent to keep our loved ones and community safe.

Too many times in history have we proven to forget and make the same mistakes. We must not let it happen again.

I did not like this movie. Seems to soon to make a documentary on a crisis that seems is never going to end. Still too many questionable information out there. The appears to be made to justify something. This is my second review. I don't see the first one I posted.

As a nurse who worked in the icu this is the most accurate documentary I've seen. I hesitated to watch it since I'm trying to work through it all still. When she was explaining the frustrations of not being able to actually help anyone it really hit home. In the beginning patients would get better and we would tell their families and give them hope because we didn't know better yet. Then they would suddenly crash and code. It was completely soul crushing to not be able to help these people who were suffering. Everyone was calling us heroes but we were barely saving anyone early on. I felt like such a failure. Also how attached we get to our patients, we say we try to separate it but I think we all had those that we got close to, them and their families, who hit us harder when they passed. The first thing we would do when walking in the door is check and see if they are still alive. I'm glad this gives a glimpse of what it was like for both the patients and staff. Also glad PT's got airtime, those that were lucky enough to survive had a long road ahead of them. Wish they had also focused on a RT, they are so crucial always but especially during covid. I think it was very well done overall.

The stories of those who overcame, and the care of the medical professionals towards their patients, was absolutely breathtaking.

Anyone who says differently, trivializes the suffering of others and the work of the healthcare professionals. In fact, those who marked a 1 and voiced their opinion, made clear their ignorance.

You definitely have to be in the mood to see this - the reality of being right up close to COVID in New York at the start in March 2020 is painful. The stories of the families, and the hospital workers coaxing folks back from the brink are essential viewing. As other reviewers have said, a lot rings very true, and this film should be in the running for lots of awards.

I am just grateful to the people who gave permission to share their struggles with this horrible disease. I hope lots of people will see it who need to know most what it is like to battle COVID. The images of the sea of people working to save those suffering mightily will stay with me for a long time. It is a reminder of how many people care and will put their lives on the line because they do. POWERFUL!

Kieleargente , ragerino , uncleruckus-27636 said it all - there is actually nothing more to add.. besides underlining that this is a documentary and not a movie.

It is heart wrenching, I am not crying easily .. but when the one nurse started washing her hands, ranting and swearing at all of this after a patient died, I lost it.

It really really just shows you the extraordinary emotional stress these people especially are going through.

I do not understand the 1-6 star ratings, I have no idea who and how one can come to this "conclusion/opinion".

I personally feel very deflated after seeing this. I fear/feel nothing will change. Authorities and our systems will always 'be' like this. Prioritising profits instead of standing up for values like community, care, decency...etc.

I too believe a strict lockdown worldwide could/would have changed the course of this pandemic.

No words to describe this documentary. My hope is that everyone throughout the world watches this. This should me mandatory for all to see the real reality and the real pain. I hope you take the time to watch it and that you have other family and friends watch it as well. We are in this together and we can't make it without each other. My thoughts and prayers go out to all our healthcare workers and every family who has lost a loved one.

This was such a difficult movie to watch but I think everybody should see it. From the beginning of the pandemic I thought that live footage from the hospitals every night on the news would have shocked straight the partisan anti-maskers and brought us together instead of driving us further apart. We DID stand a chance against this common enemy - but we squandered it - and the price is still being paid with the mounting casualties and the precious mental and physical well-being of our healthcare providers.