In 1985, Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on a house, killing 9 people and destroying 65 other houses. Let The Fire Burn, the powerful directorial debut of Jason Osder, examines the events leading up to the controversial bombing. Osder delves into the activities of the radical group MOVE and looks at police and public attitudes towards them.

Osder focuses on archival footage of the inquiry, old interviews and news footage to tell the history of what happens. The focus is on detachment and fact, showing everything in chronological order. The problems between MOVE and the police certainly had racial elements, but there are other issues. Many complaints came from the black community, ranging from noise and sanitation to child neglect and threatening behaviour, including a masked man armed with a shotgun standing sentry on the rooftop. Prior to this, a shootout with MOVE left nine injured, and one officer dead. Uncensored footage of police brutally beating a surrendering MOVE member, and a statement that police fired over 10,000 rounds lends credence to many of their statements about their treatment at the hands of police.

While racism was certainly a factor in the events, Osder is quick to point out that the mayor at the time, B. Wilson Goode, was black (the first black mayor in Philadelphia’s history) and includes footage of other black people complaining about MOVE and the lack of action taken against them, including one witness who opines “you’ll have to kill all of ’em.” Ultimately, it would appear that politics and racism allowed the situation to spiral out of control, leading to the deaths of eleven people, including five children. Rather than trying to explain why this event happened, it focuses on how events like this can be allowed to happen and the fallout of such events.

This film is highly recommended especially in light of the recent incidents in California and Watertown, Mass. where police used or threatened to use of ‘controlled bombing’ on American citizens. In California the cabin where fugitive Christopher Dorner, a former police officer was on the run in California was in a police standoff and the threat of the use of a ‘controlled explosion’ during the Boston Marathon incident when law enforcement agents where going to use this method on April 19th, 2013 in Watertown.

Donal O’Connor