Review of The Twister: Caught in the Storm Directed by Alexandra Lacey Rating *****
Just in time for tornado season, this Netflix documentary has as much suspense as either of the two Hollywood productions. On May 22, 2011, an F5 tornado ripped through the small town of Joplin, Missouri. This is the story of that event as told by some of the people who survived it.
The survivors tell their stories, starting on New Year’s Eve 2010 and continuing to the days immediately following the disaster. The interviews are done in a casual setting—there is no need for Dateline-like sit-down interviews. One interviewee tells her story while sitting cross-legged in the back of a pickup truck. The approach is closer to what it would be like to hear these individual stories while sitting next to them in a bar or sitting by a campfire.
Along with the interviews are video clips taken from the same people being interviewed. Since the tornado was rain-wrapped, there never was a clear video image of the monster tornado that ripped apart a good portion of the city of Joplin. However, several clips taken from surveillance and CTV videos did show the effect of the storm’s violence.
A few weeks ago, we had strong straight-line winds up to 70 mph here in Texas. They were strong enough to rip three solar panels off my roof. An F5 tornado, the most substantial rating given for a tornado, has wind speeds in excess of 300 miles per hour. The Joplin tornado killed 161 people and injured over 1,000 more.
The filmmakers never showed a before-and-after comparison of the damage. They also failed to show what Joplin looks like today or talk about the rebuilding process. I don’t know if that was deliberate, but it is my only criticism.