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Show:		7.0
Picture:		7.0
Sound:		6.0
Extras:		4.0
Score:		6.0

Director(s):	Jeffrey S. Woods
Starring:	Jason Benjamin • Lynn Bumgardner • Carrie Fox • Preston Proffitt
Genre:	Crime • Documentary
Website:	http://www.history.com/schedule.do?action=daily
Release Date:	November 10, 2009

List Price:	DVD - $17.99
Amazon:

Suckers for profiler documentaries will find a decent production in Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem. Not unlike the recent film Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp, Crime Wave suffers when it gets too bogged down in details of the various biographies; it loses sight of the overall story which has a compelling amount of information unto itself, making the moments where it dives too deep into the backstory of any one criminal a bit mundane. Perhaps the greatest aspect of the disc’s scope is that it covers both facets of the story: the criminals and the pursuit thereof; not only do Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde get a strong focus but the formation of the FBI plays an integral role in the telling of the story. From its humble beginnings as just another bureaucratic office with no real power to the upstart agency responsible for the felling of some of American history’s most notorious criminals, the FBI didn’t always have the reputation for crime solving that they do today. Crime Wave charts the progression of the nation’s criminal roots and its most chronicled investigative force.

The History Channel has taken in-depth looks at many of history’s most diabolical personalities, but Crime Wave jumps from one villain to the next. Hear the story of how Bonnie and Clyde met and began their destructive romp through the country or of Dillinger’s daring backdoor escape with the FBI on his heels. Their exploits make for interesting documentary material and the overall presentation entertains most of the time.

However, the documentary loses site of its overarching style when it sporadically takes a random piece of detail and extrapolates two to three minutes on nothing but that. The levels of detail are noticeably inconsistent making the pace of the documentary feel like it was more dependent on whatever small tidbits they could dig up than reaching a targeted message. When it stays on task the documentary makes for a formidable entry in the History Channel’s increasingly large library of profiler pieces; luckily the meat of the story has enough to excuse the hiccups in pacing.

The periodic updates on the evolution of the FBI create chapters to help discern where the story of one criminal trails off and another begins. J. Edgar Hoover’s transformative legacy (no joke intended) has since become an issue of controversy. What stands, however, is his effect on the small office of powerless clerks. At its start, the FBI had no legal authority to arrest or make any motions within the law; they did little more than research and track the movements of the bandits. The initially inept excursions of the bureau led to one humiliation after another until they shifted their tactics from those of tepid and impotent interest to fervid “shoot on sight” policies.

The disc’s primary feature-length documentary makes the disc a worthwhile viewing for anyone with an interest in America’s greatest outlaws of the 20^th century. Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, Dillinger, Barker, Bonnie and Clyde, the gangs all here and the disc has just enough momentum to keep it going through the overweight segments.

DVD Bonus Features

For those who make it through the disc’s main feature and think “This guy’s nuts! There’s nothing wrong with the pacing!” the supplementary documentary consists of a deeper look at two characters who received an already in-depth look in the first place: Bonnie and Clyde. BIOGRAPHY Bonnie and Clyde: The Story of Love & Death takes the traditional perspective on the criminal duo by embellishing the tragic love story that ends riddled with bullet holes on the side of the road. By comparison with the many documentaries that already exist on the duo, this one has little to distinguish itself from the rest. It’s interesting, but can’t really be considered too much a “bonus” as the story almost seems like a biographical cliché, if that makes sense. A deeper look at another villain like Nelson or Machine Gun Kelly would have been a bit more interesting, not to mention original.