I suspect there's just a dash of post production and CGI in there, but it's largely real cockpit footage and audio, intercut with interviews with the crews, and needs very little gilding. The striking part is the stark contrast between the bold certainty of their training and mission preparations versus the confused clusterfuck that it rapidly degenerated into, all played out through the actual recorded footage and radio chatter. It's not too jingoistic, nor triumphant, but they had that pretty comprehensively shot out of them. They say they learned a lot from their mistakes. I reckon if they'd asked the Russians about the advisability of flying over a bunch of restless natives - fousands of 'em - every one of them (and their mums) armed with AKs then they might not have been so confident to begin with. Still, it's an interesting tale, compellingly told, and well worth the time.

Every 10 years or so, you come across this jaw dropping production that sticks with you for days to follow. This is the mother of all those (given you take any interest in the overall ubject of warfare and particularly combat aircraft, of course).

I had some idea what I was going to see as I am familiar with the Apache. You get the feeling of almost being in the cockpit as they are zooming only feet over the ground headed into enemy territory. All the footage is actual footage - no recreations. Everything got super real for me when that first bullet hit that helo and they were like "What was that?" What came next I wasn't really ready for but it made me give even more respect than which I already had for these Apache crews. Not to get political, but I don't know how any American can watch what I just watched, then still have the gall to kneel during our National Anthem. It's truly dispicable. This was a great doc that was edited well and has all the real players involved with actual footage.