I was six years old and in first grade when I heard about the "accident" on television. I watched stories with family about Chernobyl on the evening news. I read about it in history books beginning a few years later when the whole story and its catastrophically disastrous aftermath became public knowledge.
The documentary takes a few liberties as only Hollywood will deliver, but HBO faithfully conveys the crux of the true story of incompetence and egotism, which caused the disastrous meltdown! This well-documented story is fabulously told, and the drama behind it is quite riveting! I'd toss 1,000 rotting tomatoes at it and give it 50 stars if I could because it's just that good!