'The Stringer' on Netflix Review: Nobody Is Going to Believe Nick Ut Took 'Napalm Girl' Now

One Picture Changed the Course of the Vietnam War. But Who Really Took It?

A compelling new Netflix documentary, ‘The Stringer,’ interrogates the authorship of the Pulitzer-winning “Napalm Girl” photograph.

'The Stringer' on Netflix Review: Nobody Is Going to Believe Nick Ut Took 'Napalm Girl' Now

The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo, which lands on Netflix this week, opens with a line implying Nick Ut is a liar: "What you do know is what you didn’t take." But is that really true? I've always thought the inverse makes more sense.

Netflix releases the documentary "The Stringer: The Man Who Took The Photo," the story of the invisible man behind the world’s most visible photo

Some images need no introduction. They are seared into our collective retina and define entire eras. A naked, terrified girl runs with her arms spread wide down a hot asphalt road while the black smoke of napalm devours the sky behind her. That photograph did not just help end a war; it defined our understanding of pain, innocence, and photojournalism. For half a century, the history behind that image has been monolithic and untouchable. We were…